


The Man Who Saved Central City

by AlphaQueen



Series: Fastest Man Alive [5]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Barrisco - Freeform, M/M, Mpreg, Still more slowburn, Worth the wait, flashvibe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-02
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-09-03 17:04:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 39,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8721736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlphaQueen/pseuds/AlphaQueen
Summary: Everyone tries to recover from the events of the Wormhole....
Fastest Man alive Series Part 2





	1. The man who Saved Central City

_My name is Barry Allen, and I am the fastest man alive. When I was a child, I saw my mother killed by_

_Something impossible. My father went to prison for her murder. Then an accident made me the_

_Impossible, and I became the Flash. I used my powers to find the man responsible for my mother's death._

_I thought I would finally get justice for my family, but I failed. It's been six months since the Singularity._

_I'm on my own now. Decided it’s better that way. Keeps the people I care about safe. There's only one_

_Thing I can do now. I run._

“Joe, where are we at with the murder at the nuclear plant?” Singh asked Joe.

“Barry's still analyzing the evidence, but there was definitely something weird” Joe explains.

“Yeah, which is why I let you have that Anti-Meta-Human Task Force. Speaking of which, where's your scientific advisor?” he asked looking around.

“Ho, ho, ho! Fear the beard!” Cisco says smiling at Singh who found no amusement in the compliment. Cisco quickly frowned. “It's a very distinguished look... Sir”.

“What is all this, Mr. Ramon?” he asked rolling his eyes.

“Oh, this right here? This is a little something I'm working on. I'm cooking it up for Joe and the task force to take down meta-humans. I'm think I'm going to call it The Boot. Oh, here are the receipts” he says handing a stack of papers to the captain. “Oh, um, Captain, one more thing……”

“You are not getting a badge, Mr. Ramon” he says completely ignoring Cisco, walking into his office and shutting the door.

Joe laughs. “He's really stingy with those badges, isn't he?” Cisco asks.

“Yeah, cops are funny that way. So you really think you can get this to work? Don't have me caught out on the streets with my pants down” Joe warns.

“Yes, once I finish the Boot, CCPD will totally have what it needs to take down a meta-human. Especially now that Barry has decided to go all Lone Wolf McQuade and fight crime by himself” Cisco sighs. Barry had barely said a word to him, the last month. Cisco was starting to worry that maybe he did or said something to make Barry mad at him.

“I know, right? Have you spoken to him?” Joe asks.

“No, he won’t answer my calls or texts. I must be really pissed him off or something” Cisco says.

“I doubt you could do anything to piss Barry off” Joe implies.

“Yea, well he is completely ignoring me. I barely heard from Caitlin since she started working at Mercury labs” Cisco says and just then Iris walks over, giving him a tap on the back to let him know she’s there. 

“Hey Cisco. Hi, Dad” she says giving Joe a hug.

Joe accepts the embrace and gives her a small kiss on the head. “Hey, baby”.

“Hey, I was wondering if you'd talked to Barry about the rally” she asks.

“We was just saying” Joe says looking at Cisco.

Cisco shakes his head. “I'm sorry, but, I can't believe they're gonna give the Flash the key to the city. Although technically, as members of Team Flash, we should all be getting keys”

Iris shakes her head but laughs none the less. “Well, you know Barry. The more we try to convince him to do something, the less he's gonna want to do it” Joe says.

“Yeah, but he should go. Someone should try and get through to him” Iris says looking at Cisco.

Joe looks at Cisco as well, tilting his head in a matter of fact manner. “Same thing I was thinking. Maybe his best friend”.

“Have you not been listening, I just said Barry is completely ignoring me” Cisco frowns. “I’m probably the last person he wants to talk too”.

“Or you’re the only one that can get through to him” Iris suggests.

Cisco rolls his eyes and lets out a long sigh. “Okay, I’ll give it a try, but I’m telling you it’s going to be a complete fail”.

Cisco hears all kind of commotion when he makes it to Jitters, and to be honest it looks so much better than it did the day of the wormhole. Barry finally stops when he senses motion, which makes Cisco pause.

“You know” Cisco starts tucking his hands in his back pockets slowly making his way towards Barry. Barry just stares at him as he inches his way closer. He hadn’t seen him in almost a month, and just hearing the sound of his voice made Barry heart beat faster, his face heat up, his palms sweat. But mostly nervous…..

“If you were busy repairing Central City, that’s all you had to say instead of ignoring my calls” he says stopping right in front of Barry.

Barry ignored the second part, he hadn’t been ignoring Cisco. He just couldn’t find it in him to look at him, much less talk to him after what he had done. “Yeah, I'm just trying to put it all back exactly how it was before the... You know” Barry stops and looks at Cisco who just stares him in his eye’s waiting for him to finish the comment.

Cisco just shakes his head. “Seems like a lot of local businesses are being rebuilt at night. In secret”.

“It’s the least I can do” Barry says walking over to the bar area.

“The least you can do is make an appearance at the Rally, so the people of Central City can thank the man who saved their lives” Cisco says following Barry.

“Don't. Please” Barry starts not finding the courage to look Cisco in his eyes.

“What? You’re a hero Barry and you deserved to be recognized as one” Cisco says trying to get his attention.

“It’s my fault you lost the man you love. That’s not a hero” Barry says finally looking him in the eyes.

Cisco could see how broken and defeated Barry was, and it broke his heart to see his friend beat himself up like this. “Is that why you’re not talking to me? You think I blame you for what happened to Ronnie?”

“Well it is my fault. You should hate me” he all but whispers.

Cisco places his hands on Barry’s arms and gives it a small squeeze. “I could never hate you Barry Allen. You hear me?”

“Central City believes in the Flash. So do I”

 

Barry looked at the door to Caitlin’s lab office before going in, he hadn't seen or talked to her since she left star labs. He wanted to reach out to her so many times but he couldn't find it to do so. He knew that all he would get is a heartbroken and angry Caitlin and he couldn't take anymore guilt. Talking to Cisco, made it somewhat easier to even get to this point. For the first few weeks it was hard watching Cisco so broken, and upset. Knowing it was his fault made it hard to even comfort him as a friend. Because of that he detached himself from Cisco, and just give him some space. So when he started getting texts and calls from Cisco, he was shocked because he thought that Cisco wanted nothing to do with him. But he still couldn’t find it in him to answer. So when he saw Cisco at jitters, he was somewhat overcome with relief. Cisco looked so much better than the last time he saw him, and hearing that he didn't blame him for what happen took a small weight off his shoulders that he had been carrying ever since this all happened. It’s what brought him here.....

Barry sighed before opening the door and slowly walking into the office. Caitlin sinced the motion and looked at Barry giving a small smile. "What are you doing here?" she asked standing up.

Barry hesitated before saying. "Sorry, I should've called or something. I just... I wanted to see you".

"It's been a while" she nodded but continued to smile.

"Yeah, Cisco said that he saw you at the Flash Day celebration. I was surprised. You, better than anyone, know I wasn't the hero that day" he says wrapping his arms around himself and lowing his head.

Caitlin shook her head and took a step closer. "Of course you were".

"No. Cait, Ronnie died saving me. And I should've saved him, and I'm... I'm so sorry" he says barely making eye contact.

"Barry, I know that you did everything you could. It wasn't your fault. I don't blame you for Ronnie's death. I blame myself" she says.

"Why?"

"When Ronnie first became Firestorm, I had so many doubts and fears. I knew that I should take the second chance I had with Ronnie and leave. But I couldn't bring myself to walk away from you guys. I was supposed to protect my brother, I'm his big sister. Instead I was selfish and only thinking about myself. Being at S.T.A.R. Labs just made me think of that every single day" she sobbed. Barry walked to her and gave a hug before pulling a handkerchief from his pocket, causing something else to fall.

"Here".

Caitlin looked at it and laughed before taking it and wiping her eyes. "Oh, you carry a handkerchief now? What are you, 80?"

Barry laughs, and bends down before picking up the object. "What's that?" Caitlin asked.

"Ah, it's uh... Apparently, in case of his death, Wells had some kind of a living will" he waved it around as if it was nothing.

"And you haven't watched it yet?" Caitlin asked.

"No. No, I've... been too afraid" he sighed.

Caitlin grabbed it from Barry's hands. "What if we watched it together?"

He blinks a few times before nodding. "All right".

_Hello, Barry. If you're watching this, that means something has gone horribly wrong. I'm dead and the last 15 years have been for nothing. Bummer. 15 years. You know, when I realize that in all those years helping raise you, we were never truly enemies, Barry. I'm not the thing you hate. And so, I want to give you the thing that you want most. It won't matter. You'll never be truly happy, Barry Allen, trust me. I know you. Now... Erase everything I said up to this point. Give the following message to the police. My name is Harrison Wells. Being of sound mind and body, I freely confess to the murder of Nora Allen. In her home, on the night of March 18th, in the year 2000. I attacked Nora Allen in her dining room._

Barry stares wide eyed at the scene, oxygen becoming almost impossible to find. "Oh, my God. He confessed.

"This is it" he laughs. "This is what I need to free my dad".

Barry quickly pulls his phone from his pockets before calling Joe. Running his hands through his hair to try and calm himself. "Hey, Joe. Yeah, hey. Can you have everybody meet me at S.T.A.R. Labs? Yeah. All right, thanks. Yeah. All right, bye".

Caitlin grabs her keys and purse. "Come on, I'll drive".

Barry stood at the gates of the prison waiting for his father to be released. This day was finally here. He waited 15 years for a day that he had never thought he would see, so when he saw his dad walking through the gate with his belongings he didn't care if he looked like a 6 year old who's sees their father walking through the front door after a long day of work. He didn't care that he was smiling and tearing up and the same time. Or that he was holding his dad as if this wasn't real. He was allowed to feel all of this. He pulled back from the hug and just smiled at his dad. "Let's get out of here" he tells him.

"I'll race you" Henry jokes.

"You will lose" Barry laughs before wrapping his arm around his dad’s shoulders. Barry spent most of the car ride, catching his dad up on all the things he had missed since the last time he saw him. Soon as he arrived at Joes, he quickly grabbed his dad things and headed to the front door as soon as it opened. "Welcome home!" everyone screamed.

Iris was the first to give Henry a hug, followed by Joe. "Uh, Dad this is Professor Martin Stein, his wife Clarissa".

"This is Doctor Caitlin snow" he says moving aside when his dad takes her hand and gives it a kiss. "Nice to meet you Caitlin".

Caitlin blushes. "You too henry" she smiles.

"And this is Cisco Ramon" he says smiling down at him. Henry looked at Barry and noticed the blush spreading across his face before looking at Cisco.

Henry grabbed Cisco's hand and gave it a shake, keeping the hold afterwards. "Hi Cisco, I been wanting to meet you. Barry has talked my head off about you for the last year. You've really been a great friend to him throughout all this".

Henry lets go of his hand. Cisco looks and Barry and blushes. "Barry is an amazing person, I'm glad your home" he says nervously putting his hand in his back pockets.

Everyone looks to Stein when they heard the tapping on glass and notices Stein has his glass raised. "Gather round, everyone, please. Looking at all of you, thinking how far we've all come, and remembering those who are no longer with us, I'm reminded of a Hebrew word used during times of graduation. Kadima. It means, "Forward." He raises his glass to everyone.

"Forward. Forward. Forward. Forward. Forward. Forward. Forward. Forward" Everyone says clinking their glasses and hugging their loved ones.

"Well said. Thank you" Joe says to Stein.

Hours throughout the party, Barry decided to pull his dad aside. He had some things he needed to discuss with him. "You good?" he asked noticing his dad was somewhat tipsy, which made him chuckle.

"Ah, yeah.  Stuff goes to your head after being away from it for 14 years" he says leaning on the wall.

"I bet" Barry laughed.

"So, what's going on with you and Cisco?" Henry asked.

Barry laughed nervously, shoving his hands in his pocket. "What? What....do you mean? He’s my best friend".

"Is that why you can't take your eyes off him, or you blush at certain things he says......" Henry notices Barry start to shift nervously.

"I know you son, and I can tell how much you love him. What's holding you back?" he asked.

Barry swallows and looks down. "He lost the love of his life because of me. Reverse flash almost killed him because I love him. It’s....it's just best this way" he says.

"Barry, you can't blame yourself for those things. The flash gets to be normal, happy and in love just like everyone else" Henry explains.

"The flash is supposed to protect the ones he loves. And that's what I'm doing" he says.

"By sacrificing your happiness....." Henry starts.

Barry shakes and drops the subject. "I am happy, especially now that your home. All right, look. I was thinking, what if, in the morning, the two of us started looking for an apartment for both of us, and Iris has actually been doing some research on how to get your medical license back so you could start your practice up again, or, if you wanted, come work with us at S.T.A.R. Labs".

"I don't know. I mean... “Henry starts.

"What's wrong? You okay?" Barry asks worried.

"Yeah, it's a party. Come on, we can talk about all this tomorrow" Henry says pushing himself off the wall.

But Barry doesn't drop the subject. "Talk about what?" Are you not planning on sticking around?"

"Okay. Okay, do you think...? Can you be all that you are becoming...? With me here?" Henry asks.

Barry can't believe what he is hearing. "You're the only family that I have left".

Henry shakes his head and looks to the party. "Well, that's not really true, is it? Don't you have another family in this room? They need your help too, Barry. When you need me, I will be here, but right now, Central City doesn't need you to be Henry Allen's son. It needs you to be the Flash. My kid. The superhero. I have to go. I need you to tell me that it's okay" he says.

Barry blinks back the tears in disbelief and sadness "Yeah. It’s okay dad".

 


	2. The Darkness and the Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry asks Patty out on a date  
> Cisco catches the attention of the new Barista at Jitters  
> The gang meets Earth 2 Wells

"Very strange to be holding your autobiography, especially when you didn't write it and it's not about you" Wells says slamming the book shut and looking to the pair who was staring at him with so much disgust.

Barry chuckled at the two before smirking at this awkward introduction. "Dr. Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon, meet Dr. Harrison Wells from Earth-2"

"Hi" he says emotionless. 

"Hi" Cisco rolls his eyes. "So let me get this straight. You're the doppelganger of the man who murdered his mom and is responsible for both Ronnie and Eddie's deaths?”

"Yeah, but he's not even the doppelganger of the Dr. Wells that we knew because that Dr. Wells' body had been taken over by the Reverse Flash, who was really Eobard Thawne and Eddie's distant relative from the future" Caitlin explains.

Wells just blinked. "Yeah, I didn't follow any of that. I'm my own man. I had nothing to do with the murder of your mother or your friend Ricky".

Caitlin jaws tightened. "His name was Ronnie!”

Wells doesn't seem to care that he has offended her. "Him either".

"You told me you have proof of your identity?" Barry says.

Wells goes over to his bag and pulls out a small gray bag, which Caitlin instantly recognizes. "This almost hit me when I went through the portal. Your stabilized breach downstairs connects directly to the S.T.A.R. Labs on my Earth".

Caitlin takes the bag. "Technically, this could be mine, but I want to run some tests on you".

"I'll be genetically indistinguishable from my Earth-1 counterpart. Your tests will reveal nothing" Wells counters.

"Great! Still gonna run 'em" she says.

"Be my guest" Wells watches as Cisco walks up to Barry.

"Why are we even listening to him? How do we know he's not evil like the other guy?" Cisco whispers.

"He saved my life last night. The question is why" Barry says looking to Wells. "I'm guessing you didn't travel between dimensions just to meet The Flash".

"That's exactly what I did. I came here to help you, Barry, to stop your greatest enemy" Wells explains.

"He already did that".

"I'm not talking about Reverse Flash. I'm talking about Zoom" Wells notices the looks on everyone’s faces at the mention of Zoom.

"I see you've already heard of him" he says.

"Yeah, Zoom has been sending meta-humans from your world through the breaches to fight me" Barry smirks.

"Well, they're the symptoms. Zoom's the plague, one that's infected my world, and now he's coming for yours. I created Zoom. I'm responsible for all the Earth-2 meta-humans, a fact I've ignored for far too long, but now I'm doing something about it".

Cisco throws his hands up. "Yeah, well, we're batting a thousand against these breachers".

Wells frowns. "You're batting a thousand, Crisco? What's your sample size? Ten? Less? Zoom is obsessed with speed. He will never allow there to be another speedster in the multiverse, and he's gonna keep sending these metas here, one after the next, all with the same goal: to kill The Flash unless we stop him together".

"Last time we listened to a guy with your face, some bad things went down. We lost people we cared about" Cisco explains.

"Everyone loses someone they care about, Crisco. The real test of character is what you do once they're gone" Wells says.

That’s when Barry hears it, gun shots! He looks at the source and sees Joe with his gun pointed at Wells. He quickly runs towards the bullets grabbing each before they can make it to Harrison. "Joe! Put the gun down!" he says blocking Wells from any further harm. 

"How is he still alive? How are you still alive?" he says making his way to Wells ready to beat his ass. Barry stopped him.

"I don't know, because you missed?" he says as if its common sense.

"Hey, I'm trying to keep him from shooting you. You're not helping. Let's take a walk, all right? It's all good" Barry pushes Joe out of the room.

Caitlin sighs and places her hand on Cisco shoulder who doesn't stop glaring at Wells. "We know someone who can verify everything that this guy just said. Be careful" she says before leaving.

"I don't suppose you have a Big Belly Burger in this universe, do you?" Wells asks.

"This isn't happening".

"You do realize that when I said I wanted a drink, I didn't mean a latte, right? I was talking about alcohol. Like, mind-numbing alcohol" Cisco explains to Barry, rolling his eyes at the fact he brought him to a coffee shop.

Barry smiles at how cute Cisco looks before he notices that he is smiling at someone. He looks to see who it is and notices the Barista smiling back.

"Who is that?" Barry smiles nervously.

Cisco shakes his head at the barista and looks at Barry. "Nobody" he says.

Barry is not letting it go that easy. "He's smiling at you. Does he know you?" Barry asks his jealously getting the best of him.

"Hey guys" a voice says scaring the crap out of the pair.

"Are you kidding me, Hey?" Barry says when he sees who it is.

Cisco just looks at the woman. "Oh Cisco, this is Pattie, Pattie this is my Cisco......ugh my best friend Cisco....my friend" he corrects, rubbing his hand behind his head.

Cisco laughs. "Hi, Pattie".

She laughs to and shakes his hand. "Hi, my Cisco".

Barry chuckles nervously. "So what are you doing here"?

"I have to get in my police report, and a cup of Joe would help that process go way better" she says crossing her arms. "Maybe you'd want to write it with me, we could grab dinner before.....maybe".

"Together...." he gulps, _oh god he is sweating._

"Uh, I can't tonight. I'm busy, sorry. . I've just got science stuff. Stuff I gotta science the stuff out of. Maybe next time" Cisco drops his smile at the pair and stares at Barry squinting his eyes at Barry. Barry notices but keeps his eyes on patty.

"Coolio, well I'll just skip the Joe and get a head start....ok bye" she says leaving. Cisco slaps Barry arm almost instantly.

"What the hell was that?" he asks.

"What?" Barry rubs the spot on his arm, still unable to look at him.

Cisco smiles at him. "She likes you" he says giving his elbow a nudge.

“Yea, I know….” Barry says shifting nervously. _But I love you…._

“Sooooooooo, what’s the problem. She seems nice, and perfect for you. Are you still getting over Eddie?” Cisco asked. Barry blinked, tilting his head remembering that he hadn’t told Cisco he and Eddie broke up before he died.

“No, trust me I’m over Eddie” he says.

“Ok, than what’s the problem?” he tries.

Barry sighs. “I don’t know I guess I’m just not ready to date” he explains, which wasn’t a complete lie, there was some truth to that.

Cisco gives a lopsided smile, and gives Barry’s elbow a squeeze. “Cisco, my favorite customer. I was beginning to think I’d scared you off” the barista says smirking at him.

Barry looked at him noticing that they had finally reached the counter. “Carter….Hi”.

He looks at Barry. “This your boyfriend?” he points.

Cisco chuckles and shakes his head, glancing over at Barry. “No, this is my best friend”.

Carter smirks. “Well best friend can you please let Cisco know that I think he is beautiful and would love to take him out on a date” he says looking back at Cisco.

Barry doesn’t even know what to say to that. Rage and Jealously where the only things he was feelings right now _Seriously dude…_ He thought, hitting on Cisco while he was standing there, holding up the line much less. Barry took a deep breath and suppressed the urge to jump across the counter.

“Ughhhh….”that was all he could get out _Come on Allen!_

“How about you get me 2 flashes…….” Cisco started.

“One with extra cream, and sugar….” He says ringing up the order and handing Cisco the ticket.

“Ugh…….how much” Cisco asks.

Carter smiles and shrugs. “Come on Cisco, it’s on me or at least until you give me an answer”.

Cisco laughed. “What If I want to drag this out? Just to get free coffee?”

Carter leans on the counter. “I’m more than willing to take care of you” he says seductively causing Cisco to blushes.

_Unbelievable….._ They were flirting right here in front of him.

“Don’t we need to get back, I’m sure we are needed for something” he says as if thinking. Cisco looks at Barry and back to Carter, waving the receipt.

“Thanks for the coffee” he says walking away.

“Until Next time Cisco” Carter yells.

_The nerve!_

Cisco freezes and then when it happens, he can feel the vibe start and his mind drifting into another vibe. Soon as he was fully in the vibe, he looked around to see where exactly he was. Immediately noticing he was at Central City bank, he took note that everyone was scared and down. Looking around for the source of their fear, he spotted a woman. She quickly shot light at the security camera knocking it out. That when Cisco could feel himself coming back to reality.

Barry was staring at the counter waiting for their coffee order not paying him any attention when he came too. “We have another breacher” Cisco says getting Barry’s attention.

“What? How do you know?”

“Central City Bank. You gotta go now!” he says.

“All right” Barry speeds off.

Barry’s mind had been reeling ever since the encounter at the coffee shop with Carter. Barry didn’t want to purse a relationship with Cisco because of his fears of Cisco getting hurt, but also because Barry wasn't sure that Cisco even saw him that way. The last time he really talked to Cisco about his feelings he explained that, he had feelings for Barry before but he didn't anymore. Who's to say he ever will? Cisco was better off with that Carter guy anyway, something normal and without all his baggage. 

Barry walked into the CCPD and spotted Patti coming down the stairs. He smiled before walking over, grabbing her attention from whatever she was reading.

She smiled and blushed at seeing Barry standing in front of her. "Hey! Hey. How's your science stuff?" She asked. 

"I finished it. Um, did you get your report done? “Barry asked. 

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. It wasn't as much fun writing it by myself, but..." she looks at Barry shyly and then looks back to her papers "I'll see ya"

Barry closed his eyes and takes a deep breath. He knows Patty likes him, though he doesn't return the feelings, it's worth a shot to give a date a try to see where it goes. Barry rubs the back of his neck as Patty walks by. "Yeah. Hey, do you ever feel completely overwhelmed by everything that you have to do in a day and it feels like the one thing that you actually want to do is the thing that gets lost?"

Patty keeps her smile but blinks confused. "I'm confused. What?”

"Would you want to get dinner with me sometime?" He asks. 

Patty’s smile grows, Barry can tell she's holding back her excitement. "Yeah, this isn't gonna be one those things where I get really excited and then, you know, more science stuff comes up, right?”

"No, no, that's not... um, tomorrow? We can grab an early dinner. I don't want to wait anymore" he says.

Patty nods. "Okay. Looking forward to it" she says hiding her blush and turning to walk to her desk. 

        

Barry blinked a few times hoping that it would help bring back his vision faster. He could somewhat see but everything even close to him was a blur. "I still can't see. How long is this gonna last?"

"You're suffering from solar retinopathy. Your retinas are severely damaged. You're lucky you're not permanently blind. But with your rapid regeneration abilities, your sight should return soon" Caitlin explained. 

"6.25 hours by my estimation" Wells confirmed. "All this could have been avoided if you just stopped Light instead of chitchatting with her".

"She caught Barry off guard" Jay says, with a eye roll.

Wells rolled his eyes. "Always an excuse with you, right? He's the fastest man alive. How could she possibly do that?" Wells was furious. 

"Because Light looks exactly like my high school girlfriend, Linda Park" Barry explains.

"That's why Zoom sent her... because he knew you'd hesitate".

Jay crossed his arms. "That means Zoom had to have known somehow that Linda was your ex".

"Which is why Barry has to act now, before Zoom sends another double from Barry's life" Wells says.

"All right, right now, I'm more worried about Linda. When I saw who was under the mask, I said her name. What if Light didn't even realize that she had a doppelganger here until I accidentally told her?”

"The first thing that Atom Smasher did when he crossed the breach was to kill his doppelganger" Cisco says.

"But Light's not like Atom Smasher. We should keep an eye on your Linda" Jay suggests. 

“All right, I'll go" Barry says getting up from the bed, walking out of the lab only to hit a wall of his way out. "Oh! Sorry" he says straightening himself up and trying again only to walk into a desk.

"Barry!" Cisco says grabbing his arm and leading him a chair. "Okay, okay. You can't do anything until your sight returns" 

"I'll do it" Jay says.

"I'll go with you!" Caitlin smiles grabbing her jacket. 

"Hey, Barry! Hey I came as soon as I heard... “ Iris says pulling Barry in for a hug, as tight as she could possibly get. She pulled back instantly when she spotted Wells starring at her. 

"You look just like him" she says.

Wells sighed and rolled his eyes. "I'm guessing my counterpart did something to offend her as well?" 

Cisco shakes his head. "Her fiancé died because of him". 

"Oh" Wells says very nonchalant, making his way back to Cisco’s workroom. Cisco walked to stand next to Iris.

"Iris, I know it's weird seeing him" Barry says leaning on the nearby computer desk. 

Iris sighs. "Yeah, it's just a lot to process lately. Wells, my mother". 

"How are you doing with that, by the way?" He asks.

"I mean, now that she's gone, okay....I guess" she shrugs. "But I don't want to talk about her, how are you doing?” 

It's at that moment Barry's phone goes off. "That's me" he says pulling it out of his pocket. 

"I got it. Barry, let me help you" Cisco says taking the phone and opening the message. "Running a little late. P. Who's P?”

Barry sighs completely forgetting about that. "That's Patty" 

Cisco face suddenly changes to one of excitement but curiosity. "My dad's partner Patty?" Iris asks. 

"Mm-hmm" Barry nods. 

"You asked her out?" Cisco asked. "That's awesome Barry, she's really nice". 

Iris doesn't say anything she just looks at Cisco, then back to Barry. "Yeah, no, Patty's great. I just, you know... I doubt she's gonna give me another shot when I have to cancel on her". 

Cisco smacks Barry shoulder. "Don't cancel". 

"I'm blind, Cisco. A literal blind date. It's not gonna work" he laughs at the situation. 

"Barry who are you talking to here?" Cisco asks slightly offended. "I have something that is perfect for you date, hang on I'm going to get it". 

Iris watches Cisco leave the room. "Don't get me wrong, I'm happy you’re going on a date. But not exactly the person I thought it would be". 

Barry sighs. "It's best this way Iris" he lowers his head. 

"What for you to pretend to move on, try to start fresh with someone you don't love? For you to break Patty heart? She asks hands falling to her sides. 

"I won't break Patty's heart" Barry says somewhat annoyed. 

"Barry I don't mean to come off as if I'm not happy for you. But you had 2 alternate timelines where you two have found your way to each other. This one won't be any different" she says. 

Before Barry can answer Cisco is heading back into the room with a pair of sunglasses. "Ok, let's do this".

Barry tried his best to find his way inside the restaurant after Iris dropped him off, but he had to admit it was somewhat of a struggle with the glasses on. He wasn't completely behind he could see but it was a complete blur, so he could really make out things too much. It only took him running into the hostess for him to know that blur he just saw wasn't a plant. The hostess escorted him to his seat, he was happy to hear Patty voice when he sat down at the table. 

"I'm so sorry I'm late" he smiled.

"No, don't be. You know, I actually judge my dates on whether or not they stand me up, so you are off to a great start" she laughed nervously. 

"What do you mean? Who would stand you up?" He asked in disbelief. Patty was a gorgeous women he couldn't picture anymore leaving not showing up to spend time with her. 

"Oh, I have a reputation" Barry could hear her gasp. "Not that kind of reputation, that’s not what I meant". 

Barry hears Cisco bust out laughing, which causes him to laugh. "That's embarrassing" he hears. 

"You know, I actually... I arrested a boyfriend once. A very ex-boyfriend, while we were at dinner. He got really wasted and decided to insult the waitress, so I cited him for public intoxication" she tells, shrugging shyly waiting for Barry to say or do anything to get this date started.

Cisco notices. "She looks amazing. You have to tell her how amazing she looks". 

Barry pretends to look her up and down. "You look amazing, Patty" he states. 

Patty flips her hair. "Uh, thanks, I actually had a really hard time trying to figure out what to wear, like, if I should wear a dress or if this color was a little weird". 

"No, you look great. Um, yeah, no, that... what would you call that color?" He says hoping Cisco got the hint. 

Cisco stops chewing his food and panics. "Um, uh... I can't tell. The feed's black and white". 

"I don't know. Yeah, whatever it is, that color should thank you for wearing it" he smiles. 

Cisco laughs. "Good save". 

Patty blushes. "Smooth" she laughs.

Barry shakes his head and nervously laughs. "Not Smooth".

"Lookout, wine list coming your way" Cisco says. Barry tries to reach for the list, kind of nervous he can't find where the waiter is holding it. "Uh, yes, uh, got it. Thank you. Um... Um, you know, why don't you..." he tried to hand the list to Patty hearing that he clearly knocked something over. 

"Oop! Sorry. The guy always picks. Why don't you choose?" He suggests. 

"Yeah, what do you want, red or white?” she asks. 

"Whatever you'd like" he waves off. 

"You got this. Why do you even need me?" Cisco asks. 

As the night went on things seemed to get somewhat better. Thankfully Cisco could see the menu because if not he would have been screwed. The date hadn't been bad but to be honest Barry wasn't really fully there, maybe because of him not really being able to see, or maybe because he wasn't into Patty as much as he thought. He really only asked her out because he knew she liked him, and because he felt like he needed to move on with his life. He heard Cisco start humming, and oddly the sound of his voice gave him butterflies, Barry could almost picture him sitting at the desk on his phone playing one of the 200 games he had on his phone, rocking his head to the beat. The thought of it made him smile...

"What's funny?" Patty asked Barry pulling him out of his thoughts. Barry completely forgot he was on the date for a second. 

"Oh, that story. It was made me smile" he said. 

Patty smiled. "So I've actually been dying to ask you, what was it like to be struck by lightning.” 

"Mm. Life-changing, to be honest".

"Did it hurt?" She asked. 

"I mean, all I really remember is feeling electricity surging through my body. It was an intensity I had never felt, like I was instantly connected to everything around me. Then I woke up from a coma nine months later".

"Waking up in the future like that, it's like time travel" she chuckled.

Barry laughed. "Sort of, yeah".

Cisco had to admit listening in on their conversation made him kind of jealous. He wanted so badly for Barry to be happy to find happiness, that's all he really wanted for his best friend. When he saw Patty at Jitters, he could instantly tell she was attracted to Barry, she seriously seemed like his type. Cisco still had that what if in the back of his mind about him and Barry. I mean in an alternate timeline they were married and had 4 kids. He had to admit he often wondered, how they meant and got to that point. But this was a different timeline, and in this one He and Barry had fell in love with other people, their lives were completely different. Plus he wasn't sure Barry would ever really feel anything for him other than friendship. He still had those old feelings there, they never really went away but Cisco decided his friendship was more important, so he would be the supportive friend. 

"Yeah. When I was nine, I actually drowned. I hit my head on the diving board and fell into the swimming pool. Uh, my heart stopped for, I think, two minutes until my dad rescued me and saved my life. Yeah. So I guess we've both cheated death. I've been through a few things in my life that taught me not to be afraid of anything. I think fear is what holds people back from being who they should be" she states. 

"Ugh, preach!" Cisco says, causing Barry to jump. "Yeah, I'm still here, creepin' and peepin". 

"You okay?" Patty asked jumping with Barry.

"Sorry, I just... Yeah, I really agree with that" he said. 

"Really? Mm-hmm. I think another thing, too, I think you can't see me" she stated raising her brow. 

"Abort!" Cisco says.

Barry takes a deep breath and tries his best shocked expression. "What? What do you mean?”

"I think you can't see me. Come on, I would not be a good detective if I couldn't have figured this one out" she laughed.

"Uh, yeah. Yeah. I'm really sorry and embarrassed I didn't say anything. I had my pupils dilated earlier" Barry laughed taking off his glasses, noticing he could see a little better but not much. "And I really didn't want to cancel". 

Barry could hear Cisco but he couldn't really say anything with giving away to Patty that he had a coach the whole time. "Barry! I lost my eyes!"

"You have a great smile" Barry says. 

"Really, how do you know I'm smiling?" She asked.

Barry shrugged. "Just a hunch". 

Once they paid, Patty helped Barry outside. "Please don't let go. I may trip" he said holding on for dear life. He was already bruised up enough from everything ran into since his sight went. 

"Okay, I won't. I promise" she laughed. "Two more steps. There you go".

"It's funny how we skipped straight to the hand-holding part" she stated.

"Yes" Barry says. 

"We, uh, have arrived at my car, so... Ah" Patty didn't know what to do at it point, she really wanted to kiss Barry but she didn't want to seem desperate on the first date. 

"Well, do you think we've reached the good night kiss stage?" Barry asked, he wasn't sure if he was ready for that but it was worth a shot. Patty took her hands and placed them on each side of her face, Barry took that as a sign and leaned in to kiss her. When he opened his eyes he noticed that he vision had finally returned. Taking a good look at Patty he could finally see her and she looked gorgeous. 

"Um, this is burgundy, by the way, and you look great in it" he says opening her jacket. 

"Now you can see?" She laughed. 

Barry nodded. "I can". 

"That must have been some kiss" she says. 

"I guess so" Barry says leaning in for another kiss before his lips can touch her both of their phones go off. 

They both reached for their phones. "Sorry. No, it's mine too. Weird" they both say in unison. 

"Cisco" Barry says. 

Barry, Caitlin, and Cisco decided to head to Jitters. After the day they had, the figured it would be good to get away from star labs and Wells, and just hang out. Cisco walked up to the counter and sighed when he saw Carter standing there with his usual smirk, a smirk that actually made him smile whenever he saw it. 

"Cisco! Am I glad to see you. I missed you" Carter says leaning on the counter. 

Cisco laughs. “You just saw me like two days ago". 

"That's two days too many. I need to see that beautiful face everyday" he says.

Cisco couldn't help the blush that spread across his face. "Ugh..... Can I get 3 flashes, one of them decaf"? 

"You sure can" he says ringing the order up, and hanging Cisco the order ticket. "On me as always". 

Cisco is about to walk away. "You know Cisco I'm going to wear you down one of these days". 

Cisco turned around and looked back at Carter, blinking a few times before walking back to him. He took a pen from the jar and a napkin and wrote his number on it. "Looks like today is your lucky day" he winked before walking away. 

Before he made it back to the table his phone went off, he look down and noticed he had a text from a new number _You have no idea ;)_

Cisco smiled and continued walking to the table. “I see your favorite Barista is working today” Caitlin smirked.

Cisco looked back at Carter then to Caitlin. “Yea, I gave him my number”

Caitlin raised her brow. “Wow, I’m impressed. Only took you a month of free coffee, things are looking up for Cisco Ramon” she laugh.

Barry frowned at that and sighed before standing up. “Hey, I think our coffee is ready I’ll go grab it” he says grabbing the ticket from Cisco’s hand.

Caitlin quickly decided it was best to move away from the subject, she could sense the jealously in Barry’s voice, and she didn’t want this to be an awkward outing.

Cisco sighed. “I guess so. A year ago I couldn’t get a date even if I paid a guy now to go out with me. Sadly……I’m still stuck with these powers, though, just don't know how to feel about 'em”.

Caitlin grabbed Cisco’s hand. “Hey, look, you don't gotta go through it alone. And now you need a cool name”.

That’s when Barry sat down catching the tail end of the convo. “Oh, snap! You're totally right. I gotta think about this one. Well, you know me. It's gotta be perfect. Mm-hmm. Something that really sings, you know? Something like...” Cisco was seriously in deep thought, he always named the meta’s and now it was him who needed to name and he would be damned if he got stuck with something stupid.

“Vibe?” Barry suggested.

Cisco thought for a minute and looked at Barry, nodding. “Vibe” Caitlin says.

“Vibe”.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Barry tries to see where this thing with Patty may go  
> The team tries to see what earth 2 wells is up too


	3. Enter Zoom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry tries to see where this thing with Patty may go  
> The team tries to see what earth 2 wells is up too

“Okay, no offense to Linda, but there is no way she can pull this off” Caitlin stated, Linda was way too sweet to play a villain, this mission was going to be a complete fail, and if no one else was going to say it she was.

“Well, maybe if she didn't scream every time she fired” Well states. 

“Yup, Linda had a rocky start, but she can pull this off” Barry instantly shook off Caitlin and Well’s worry. “I know she can. All right, did you find someplace near breach where we don't have to worry about civilians getting in the way?”

Cisco just blinked at Barry, and sighed. “Yeah, there's a place by the docks that's usually deserted at night”

“Awesome. How are we doing with the speed-dampener?” Barry asks.

“My tests indicate that it should work” Caitlin shrugs.

“It will work. I'll tune up Ramon's gloves, makes sure they work better” Wells says making his way to Cisco’s work room. 

“Okay, great” Barry nods. 

Cisco shakes his head. “Hey, we're actually gonna go through with this?”

“Yeah, we're doing this. I'm gonna have Iris get Linda ready” Barry quickly walked out of the room, he couldn't take listening to everyone doubting this plan. 

Everyone just stared at Joe, they didn't need to say anything for him to know what they wanted from him. “Yeah, I'll go talk to him” Joe says running after Barry. 

“Barry, hold up”

Barry rolled his eyes and turned around. “Hey, what?”

“You saw what happened in there. Linda's not ready” Joe says, pointing out the obvious. 

“She is. She's ready enough”.

Joe crossed his arms. “Why are you pushing this?”

Barry squints his eyes as if Joe should already know the answer to that. “What... why do you think? I want to get him”.

“Get who, exactly?” Joe asks. 

“Is that a real question?” ok now Barry was started to get frustrated with all this panic.

“You tell me. I'm... I'm not sure this is even about Zoom. I'm starting to feel like you're still chasing the Reverse Flash” Joe says.

“Reverse Flash is dead”.

Joe nods. “Yeah, but after all he did to you, you weren't the one that stopped him”.

“We all worked together” Barry sighed.

“Yeah, and Eddie got him in the end. I mean, did that make you feel cheated, like you didn't get your revenge, and stopping Zoom is the next best thing?” Barry doesn't say anything. “Look, all I'm saying is, if you're gonna ask people like Linda to risk their lives, you better be sure of exactly why they're doing it”. 

As soon as Barry walked into the CCPD the first person he spotted was Patty. He could tell by the look on her face something was bothering her. Ever since their date, she and Barry talked almost every day. He felt somewhat of a small connection to her but that of a friend nothing else. He still felt like a second date was worth a shot. He couldn't really go off of the first date and the kiss they shared. Which was pretty nice, if he may add. 

“Hey” she smiled when she spotted Barry.

“Hey” he smiled back. 

“You maybe want to grab dinner tonight?” She asked, almost desperate. “I could really use your advice on something”.

“I can't tonight. I'm sorry” Barry's phone vibrates and he quickly reaches for his pockets to see the message. “... I would. Joe and I actually... Joe and I have a thing that we've gotta do tonight. Some other time. I would much rather be spending the evening with you. Seriously, if I could cancel these plans, I would. Can we do dinner tomorrow?” It wasn't a complete lie, he would much rather be spending time, getting to know her more. 

She just smiles. “Yeah, I would like that”.

Barry moves forward to give her a hug, before leaving. She smells and takes in the scent and feel of Barry. I don't think Barry realized just how much she liked him. From the moment she meant him, she had an instant attraction to him, he was smart, super funny, intelligent, and they had so much in common. She really wanted this to work out. 

“All right, I'll see you” he says on his way to the elevator. 

“Good luck with your thing” she waves.

“Thanks. I think I'll need it” he waves back.

“Sorry, I probably screwed up somehow” Linda suggests making her way to Barry, shoulders slumped. 

“No, Linda, you did great” Barry says giving her shoulder a small squeeze. 

A loud bang sounded in the air, everyone quickly looking to sound seeing Wells knocked over a trash can on his way back to star labs. “Ugh. So Wells ain't taking this well”.

“Mm-hmm” Barry says just nodding. 

Joe looks to Barry whom he can clearly see is distracted. “How about you?” 

“Yeah, it just sucks, you know. You were right a little bit about this not being just about Zoom... about it being about the Reverse Flash” Barry admitted. 

Joe slowly crossed his arms. “Okay”. 

“But not for the reason that you think, not because I didn't beat him. It's... Wells... he said something to me on that video before he confessed to my mom's murder. He said that even if he was dead, that he still won because I wasn't happy, that I'd never really be happy”.

“How the hell would he know?” Joe asks shaking his head.

“He knew me. He knows future me” Barry says.

Joe shrugs. “That's future you. This is the you here and now” he says not really understanding where this is going. 

“I still think that Wells is right. Ever since I went back to that night and I didn't save her... I didn't save my mom, I just... there's just been this void in me. You know, I just feel like that is always gonna be there. For better or worse, Wells... He knew me” Barry says running his fingers through his hair. 

Joe laughs. “Better than I know you? He may have stalked you for 15 years, but I raised you. Look, Wells said what he said to you to mess with you... to get in your head one last time. If you listen to him, you let him win.

Barry nodded. “I know. I don't want that”.

“You're responsible for your own happiness, Barry. Forget about Wells. Think hard about what you want and what makes you happy”.

Barry just starred at Joe before nodding and making his way back to star labs with the rest of the group. 

   

Cisco was currently in his workroom, putting away the gloves he made for Linda. No point in just letting them sit around, they probably weren't going to use them again. But he had special places for all his new creations, and he was pretty proud of this one so it had to join the rest. When he turned around he noticed Barry was leaning in the doorway, just staring at him. 

Cisco starts making his way over to Barry. “Can I ask why you just staring at me?” He says crossing his arms and smirking at Barry. 

Barry smiled at the smirk on his face. “I was letting you have a moment with your toys” he answers.

Cisco laughed and went back to his desk. “Yea they are babies. I work hard on this stuff”. 

Barry follows him and sits on the desk right next to Cisco’s computer. “I was wondering if you wanted to grab dinner and a movie. Since tonight was a complete fail, I could really use a pick me up”.

Cisco looks from his computer to Barry. “Yea, sorry I really thought that would work”.

“Yea, me too. So what do you say?” He asks.

“What about Patty, I thought things were going good with you two?” Cisco asked, standing up. 

Barry sighed, and shook his head. “It's just……I've been thinking about what makes me happy….and spending time with you makes me happy”.

Cisco wasn't exactly sure how to take that, Barry was his best friend and he should be touched that he valued their friendship that much. But the way Barry said it, he could hear something more in his voice than just a simple I appreciate you as a friend. Cisco didn't know what it was, but there was something. 

He just simply laughed it off. “Ok, let’s finish up with all this mess and we can head out”

Barry blushed and rub the back of his head, chuckling. “Ok, let’s do that”.

Before neither of them could move a flash of blue lightening came into the room, stopping in between Cisco and Barry. Both took in the figure that stood between them, Barry instantly New who this was, nothing else had to be said. Zoom looked to Barry. 

“You like to fish, with bait” he says, Barry could hear the smirk in his voice. “I do too”.

Zoom took off instantly, before Barry would follow he saw that Cisco was gone. “CISCO!” He screamed before taking off. 

            

"You've been going over this footage dozens of times. Everything went exactly according to plan” Caitlin says to Wells. 

“If it had, Zoom would have shown up” he confirmed, still going over the tapes. 

“Maybe Light was wrong. Maybe he can't see through the breaches. Or maybe he finally decided to give up” Caitlin shrugged it off and sat down at the computer. Suddenly she felt a familiar gust of wind. 

“Were is he?!” Barry asked frantic.

“Who” Caitlin asked. Just then Wells watch went off.

“Zoom, he has Cisco” he says frantic. 

An alarm on the computer goes off, causing Caitlin to quickly run over too it. “He is on the roof” Barry didn't think twice before he ran off. 

When he got to the roof, there he saw Zoom holding Cisco by his T-shirt, dangling him over the building. “Flash” he says. “You think this is a game? You think I didn't know what you were trying to do?”

“Look, leave him out of this” Barry tried slowly inching forward. 

“You should have considered the consequences before you followed through with your little plan. Now! Time to pay Flash” he says letting Cisco go. 

“NO!” Barry says taking off after him, he makes it to the bottom before Cisco and uses his arms to create a gust of wind and slow him down. He manages to catch him in his arms. 

“You, ok?” He asks, putting him down.

“Nope, not even a little bit. In fact I won't be sleeping for the next three to six years” Cisco says trying to catch his breath. 

Barry sees Zoom appear behind Cisco. “Go!” He says walking towards where Zoom has stopped. Cisco quickly runs inside star labs. 

“Run, Barry” he heard Wells says.

Barry didn't respond just kept making his way towards Zoom. 

“No. I'm gonna see if your speed-dampening serum works” he stops.

“What do you want from me? “ he asked Zoom.

“Everything” Zoom states. 

“You want to be me? Is that it? You want to be a hero?” Barry chuckled sarcastically. 

“Heroes die” he says.

“Only if you can catch them” little did Barry know he was about to make the worst mistake of his life. 

  

Everyone was currently sitting in the lab, listening to Barry's vitals as Caitlin tried her best to save his life. Joe was currently rocking back and forth trying to contain his frustration but it didn't take long before he couldn't hold it in any longer. "This is all you! If Barry dies, you die" he grabs Wells shirt and slams him up against the wall. 

"Joe, Barry's vitals have stabilized. Let's let him go" Caitlin tries.

"No, Caitlin" he says.

"Why? What good does that do for Barry?" She tries again. Barry didn't need all the commotion around him while he was trying to heal.

"It's gonna help me" he says wrapping his hands around Joe's neck. 

"Joe, stop. Who's Jesse?" Cisco asks pulling at Joe's shoulder to get him to loosen his grip on Wells. 

Wells immediately froze and stared wide eyed at Cisco. "How do... Jesse's my daughter. Zoom has her. You've... you did vibe me".

"Yes".

"What did you see?" He asks.

"I saw your daughter. She was with Zoom. But she's alive?" Cisco confirmed. 

"Yeah" Wells says closing his eyes, keeping the tears from dropping, sighing in relief. 

Joe still wasn't taking the bait. "Zoom sent you here like the others? You kill The Flash, and you get your daughter back?”

Wells glared at Joe. "The only way I get my daughter back is, I capture Zoom. Do you understand? You love Barry. I love my daughter. And none of these children are safe as long as Zoom is here. I tried on my Earth to capture him. I failed. I thought I could bring him down here with Barry's help. I was wrong" and with that he leaves the room.

      

Barry had no clue where he was right now, all he knew was that he was in a warm bed, and obviously he forgot to close the curtains last night because the sun was shining brighter than usual. He slowly started to open his eyes, blinking a few times trying to get his eyes to adjust to the light. 

"You’re up" he heard, the sun was so bright he didn't even notice the person lying directly across from him, smiling and looking him right in the eyes. 

Barry squinted his eyes to make sure he was looking at the correct person. "Cisco?"

Cisco just smiled and moved forward to give Barry a kiss on the lips before laying back on his pillow. "Yea, who else would it be silly?” he laughs.

Barry slowly reaches forward and places his hand on Cisco's cheek, who turns his head and kisses Barry's hand. "Is this real".

"It can be" Cisco smiles. 

Barry just gulps and takes in Cisco's features. He knows this isn't real from what Cisco says but... "I want this to be real" he whispers.

"Why can't it be?" Cisco asks. "Why don't you want to be with me?"

"I do" Barry quickly answers. "Trust me I want this more than anything".

"But....what's stopping you? What's holding you back from being with me" he asks, taking the hand that is still on his face and holding it in his. 

"I love you. I love you so much Cisco, you couldn't even imagine how much I do. But I'm afraid that one day I'll wake up, and you'll be dead because of who I am. Or that I'll hurt you". 

"How could you hurt me?" He asks. 

"I'm damaged Cisco, more than you could ever know. I lost my mom, I lost my dad. I can't lose you too. I'll hurt you Cisco, I have hurt you. I can't do it again". 

Cisco moved his hand from Barry's to wipe away his tears. "You won't ever lose me Barry, I promise. I don’t care who you are, or how broken you think you are. I love you for always being you. That will never change".

Cisco leans forwards and places a gentle kiss on Barry's lips. Barry moves his hand around Cisco neck pulling him in more deepening the kiss, pushing his tongue between Cisco's lips, almost demanding entrance. Cisco didn't hesitate to meet his demand opening his mouth, let Barry devour him in every kiss. It's just like Barry remember from the alternate timeline. 

Barry pulled back smile fading when he noticed Cisco beginning to disappear. 

      

Cisco smiled when he saw that Barry was moving his fingers. "Hey, I think he's waking up" Cisco yelled. Caitlin had decided to head to the kitchen to grab the pair some coffee. 

"Barry. Barry? Can you hear me?" Cisco says placing his hand on Barry's arm giving it a squeeze. Barry blinked a few times, and looked at Cisco smiling. Absent minded moving his hand to his cheek. Cisco wasn't sure what to do, so he slowly grabbed Barry's hand and placed it back on the bed. This must have been a side effect of the medicine he told himself.

"Hey. You scared the crap out of us. You were gone for a long time" Cisco says running his shoulder just then Caitlin made her way back into the lab. 

"How bad is it?" He asked clearing his sore throat.

"Bad. If you didn't heal so quickly, I'd be very worried" Caitlin states. 

Barry looks to Cisco. "How are you?" He asks. 

"Paranoid, but cool" he smiles.

"Zoom?”

"Let's... Let's worry about Zoom when you're up and about, okay?" Cisco says smacking Barry's thigh. Barry instantly moved his head up and looked down at his legs noticing Cisco's hand was still laying there.

"Oh, no, you're staying put" she says pushing on his chest to lay him back down. 

"Yeah, seriously, you got your ass kicked" Cisco states.

But Barry can't take his eyes off his legs. "No, guys, I can't feel my legs. I can't feel my legs". 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Carter and Cisco go on their first date  
> Barry is completely broken from what Zoom did to him


	4. Gorilla Warfare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carter and Cisco go on their first date  
> Barry is completely broken from what Zoom did to him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the super late update guys. I've been so busy, and honestly I had a hard time with this chapter, so I lost some of my motivation to keep writing. But I'm back on track. Just letting you guys know that I'm probably gonna to skip a lot of episodes I wanted to write to get to the ones I'm really excited to write.

Attempt number 48

That's how many times, they had tried to get him walking on his own. I'm sure if Barry put in more effort they could probably have him walking sooner, but at the moment after everything Zoom did too him. He just didn't have the energy or motivation to try at the moment. "All right, I got you" he heard Cisco say standing behind him, holding his hands out incase Barry fell. 

"Mm-hmm" Barry said taking a few steps. 

"Okay. I can't do it right now, all right?" He says losing his footing and falling into the desk railing. 

Cisco placed his hands on his back, to help steady him. “Oh, yes you can, Barry. No, no, no. We've been making so much progress". 

"Yep, six whole steps. Someone get me a Bozo button" he says quickly sitting down in the chair. 

Joe shook his head. "Hey, give yourself some credit. You just broke your back". 

"Yeah, a normal person would've been paralyzed the rest of his life" Caitlin agrees. 

"How long until I'm fully healed?" He asks. 

Caitlin brought up Barry's before and after MRI's scan. "The initial MRI I took a week ago showed a complete dislocation at the T12-L1 interspace of the thoracolumbar junction. But this is the MRI I took this morning. It's remarkable, but you're almost completely healed" she confirmed, somewhat grateful at how quickly Barry’s body was healing. But personally they all knew Zoom did more mental damage then Physical.

Barry rubbed at his chest. "I'm still having trouble breathing" he states.

"That's totally normal with a spinal injury. It should clear up soon" she smiles. 

Barry glanced over at his suit. "We're going to get you back in that suit, Barry. Real quick, trust me" Joe nodded.

"What are we gonna do about Zoom?" Barry asked. 

"No sign of him since Cisco nailed him with that tranq dart" Joe says. 

"And I haven't vibed since then" Cisco says. 

"Maybe Zoom's not coming back" Caitlin suggested. 

"I highly doubt that. Which is why I'm gonna go do something about it" Wells says, bags packed and ready to go. 

Caitlin furrowed her brow. "What do you mean, go do something about it?"

"I need access to your breach room and your speed cannon" Wells completely ignored the queston, but it wasn’t like he was ever one for answers anyway.

"Why is that?" Barry squinted. 

"Because, Barry, it's time to go home" he says. 

"So, you show up on our Earth, you screw everything up, and now you want to go home? Sounds very familiar" Joe rolled his eyes. 

"Again, that wasn't me. I need to go take care of Zoom once and for all before anyone else gets killed" Well clears up. 

"How do you plan on doing that?" Cisco asked.

Wells shrugged. "I'll think of something. Ramon, if you'll escort me to the speed cannon".

"No, no, you can't go through the breach. Look, if you can figure out how to stop Zoom on your Earth, you can figure out how to do it here. We need you to stay here until we defeat Zoom, Dr. Wells" Caitlin tries, blocking his way to the door.  

"What I need, Dr. Snow, is to return home. And I'm going to that with or without your assistance" he stated, walking around her and leaving the room with his things. 

"What are you doing? If Harry wants to go...bye" Cisco waves in the direction Wells exited. 

"Look, like it or not, Cisco, we need his help" she says. 

"I'm not sure another plan from Wells is what we need" Joe states. 

"Yeah, I mean, the last bright idea he had nearly got Barry killed" Iris says giving Barry's back a small rub. 

"I know, but Jay's gone, and Dr. Wells knows Zoom better than anyone, so until Barry is back on his feet again, we need to keep Wells around in case Zoom returns" Caitlin insists. 

"Caitlin, if he doesn't want to be here, then we're better off without him. Let him go" Barry says. 

"I can't do that. Not yet" Caitlin shakes her head and grabs her jacket before walking out the door. 

An alarm sounds in the room causing, everyone to panic and follow Cisco to the computer to find out what exactly it is. "Oh, snap, meta-human attack. Nope, nope, my bad, that is just an alert for me" he says quickly turning it off. 

"For what?" Iris asks. 

Cisco smirks. "Oh, it's just a reminder. I have a date in an hour, so...”

Iris doesn't respond, just looks to Barry tilting her head and raising her brow. 

"Oh, with who?" Joe asks. 

"With this really nice Barista I meant at Jitters, we talked on the phone a few times, he's so sweet. We going to go out tonight" he says. 

"Oh yea. To where?" Joe smiles. 

"I don't know, he says it's a surprise. But I'm kinda excited and scared. He could be taking me somewhere romantic or to my death. We shall see" he says grabbing his Jacket. 

"Bye guys" he waves.

Iris smiles and waves before turning back to Barry frowning. "What?" He asks rolling his eyes and sighing. 

"So this is a thing? You’re going to date Patty and he is going to date....whatshisface......you guys are just going to go your separate ways" Iris says, hands falling to her hips. 

"I'm lost" Joe says.

Barry shakes his head. "Look Iris, I get it ok. Your team Cisco and Barry, but just because some future tech says we are married, a future that isn't even this one, might I add, means we are going to get married".

"And an alternate timeline.....look Barry, I'm not saying Patty's a bad person or that she's not good for you. But you don't love her and you never will. All she will get is a broken heart". 

Barry sighed. "What if this ends up like what happened to Eddie. What if, he isn't the one either, and I end up breaking his heart".

Iris kneeled down in front of Barry. "He's not Eddie Bar....He's not, and you know it".

Just then Barry's phone goes off. "It's Patty" he says rolling away, to somewhere more private. "Patty. Patty, hey".

"Hey. I hear you're still sick" she says voicing her concern. 

"Yeah, yeah, it's a... Nasty bug" he lies.

"Well, I make a mean chicken noodle soup from scratch. I could bring some by later if you'd like" she suggests, honestly she just really wanted to see Barry. She missed him. 

"No, that's sweet, I just... I'd feel terrible if you caught any of this. Besides, I love the canned stuff" he stutters out nervously. 

Barry can hear the disappointment in her voice. "Okay, well, try to stay off your feet".

Barry looks at his legs. "Oh, yeah, believe me, I am".

"You sure you're okay? You sound like something's up" she asks, not really wanting to let this go.

"Yeah, no, no, no, no. I'm fine. I'm just not myself right now" he says.

"Okay, well, I hope to see you soon, and, uh, feel better" she smiles. 

"Thanks. Bye". 

"Bye".

Barry sighed hanging up the phone, he wasn't 100% sure what he was doing with Patty. She was a nice girl don't get him wrong, but maybe Iris was right. He would probably break her heart in the end. He loved Cisco so freaking much, and no matter what he did, or who he tried to date nothing could change that. Cisco was it for him, and he knew it. Barry fears are what honestly kept them apart. He knew Iris was right, and maybe after all this Zoom mess was all over he could talk to Cisco and see where things lead. But by then it may be too late. 

 

"Admit it!!!! Admit it!! Princess bride is one of the best movies of all time" Cisco says to Carter as they walk out of the movies, smiling and laughing. 

Carter shook his head and laughed. "Come on! Say it" he laughs.

Carter stops and rolls his eyes. "Princess Bride is one of the best movies of all time....there you happy now" he smiles. 

"Very" Cisco says. 

"I actually really did enjoy the movie. I'm not much of a movie or Tv person" Carter states. 

How does this keep happening to Cisco, are TV's seriously starting to become extinct, that no one watches TV? 

"Seriously? What's the last movie, you watched?" Cisco asked. 

Carter stops and thinks about it. "Ummmmm.....the princess bride" he laughs. 

Cisco stares, wide eyed. "You’re joking".

Carter rubs the back of his head, smiling nervously. "Is that a deal breaker?”

Cisco slowly smiles. "Of course not, that just means that we need to head back to my place and have a movie night".

Cisco gets nervous at that, because he doesn't want Carter to get the wrong idea, but he really doesn't want this night to end and Carter needs a Star Wars marathon. "I mean if you’re up for it....we don't have to do that. We could just plan......”

"No, no that's cool. If it means spending more time with you. I'm down" he laughs. 

Cisco shyly nods and Carter reaches for his hand. Cisco slowly grabs it and as soon as he does that's when he feels it. But this one is different from the rest because he isn't in a past event. He is just staring at an armored man with wigs. He can't exactly make out who the man is but he knows it is a man, before he can get a good look he is pulled out of the vibe and starring at a worried Carter.

"Hey, is everything ok?" He asks. 

Cisco pulls his hand away and slowly starts to walk back. “I gotta go".

Carters face twists is one of confusion. "What? Why?" He asks. 

"I'm so sorry but I just remembered something important that I have to do. I'll call you, I promise" Cisco says walking off.

Carter just stands there watching Cisco walk away, trying to figure out what the hell just happened. 

 

"No spinal cord edema. I don't see any subacute hemorrhaging. Bone fused beautifully. You're all good, Barry. I'd give you some physical therapy, but you don't need it" Henry says turning around and smiling at his son. Though he had enjoyed his time, gaining back the moments of his life his missed while being incarcerated he missed Barry every single day. 

"I'm really glad you're here, Dad" Barry smiled.

"Me too. You know, I tried to call, but you can't get a signal in Granite Peak National Park, so..." he started but was cut off by Barry.

"Granite Peak... what are you... You went camping by yourself?" He asked somewhat disappointed. 

"Yeah, yeah, I got a tent. I went fishing every day. I have had my fill of largemouth bass for a while. Sometimes you just have to slow down to get back to where you want to be" Henry stated.

Barry just smiled and nodded he was glad his dad was living life again, and he was happy for him but he wish that he could shares some of these memories with him. "Yeah. Look, Dad..." Barry started.

Cisco made his way into the room cutting Barry off. "Hey, guys. I think we've found them".

He quickly left the room, motioning for Barry and Henry to follow. "Grodd has to be in one of these three bell towers. The only reason we couldn't find him on any cameras underneath the city before I cause he upgraded from a bachelor pad to a penthouse, like a baller" Cisco explained, showing what he found on the computer. 

"Okay, so we know where he is. We still don't know how to get her" Barry shrugs.

"We got a plan for you" Cisco says. 

"What's the plan?" Barry asks.

"We use me" he heard, turning to find the noise he saw the reverse flash. All it saw was a familiar figure for Barry to attack. Cisco ran over to him and tried to pull him off. "That's Harry! That's the other Wells! Barry. Let him go. Let him go" he says trying to get Barry to come to his senses. 

Barry looked at Cisco, then back to Wells before slowly pulling away. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry”.

“We found another suit in the Time Vault".

"I thought he was dead" Henry asks confused. 

Barry shook his head. "He's dead. This is... this is Harrison Wells from Earth-2".

Henry frowned. "Earth-2?"

"I'll explain later".

"If we can get Harry to convince Grodd that he's Wells, that he's his father, maybe we can convince him to let Caitlin go" Cisco explained. 

"I'm not gonna be able to help if anything goes wrong" Barry says. 

Wells nods. "That's a chance I'm willing to take"

 

"Barry, you can't let Grodd get free. Conquer your fears, son. Believe in yourself" Henry yells through the intercom. 

Barry closes his eyes. "Come on, come on, come on" he tells himself.......

Cisco ran over to Barry and smiled. "Welcome back, Flash". 

Barry smiled and moved to hug Cisco, and there it was again. That same feeling Cisco felt when Barry touched his face when coming out of his coma, and when Barry said that spending time with him made him happy. Cisco wrapped his arms around Barry neck and accepted the embrace. But something was off.

"Thanks, Cisco" he says pulling back with a smile. Cisco just pulled back and put a fake smile on his face. When Barry walked away, he frowned. Something was different, he didn't know whether it was Barry, maybe him, could be there relationship. But things seemed different.  

"He could've done your standard vinegar and baking soda volcano, but no, Barry wanted to do a molecular structure of chocolate and nougat" Joe laughed telling an old story of Barry when he was a kid. How tried to keep Henry informed as much as he could about Barry's childhood. Though he wasn't there, he wanted to know all the good, bad and ugly of Barry's life. What he missed out on and what he could make up for. "Mm-hmm. That's my favorite candy bar" Henry smiles. 

"Who does that in the sixth grade?" Joe says staring at Barry, who was red in the blushing but smiling.

"Why, a true science nerd. Like father, like son, I suppose" Henry states, giving his son a pat on the back.

Barry smiled at his dad. "All right, Dad, we should get going" as much as he didn't want him to leave it was time to hit the road. 

"Yeah. Uh, Joe, can I have..." Henry asks, motioning to the picture Joe had in his hand. Joe nodded and handed Henry the picture, pulling him in for a hug. 

Henry makes his way to Iris. "Thanks. Iris, thank you so much for reaching out to me. I am so glad you did" he says pulling her in for a hug. 

"Me, too" she says accepting the embrace. 

Henry smiles at Joe, and moves to shake his hand. "Joe, there are no words, man. Thanks" he says. 

"All right, I'm gonna swing by my lab before I come home" Barry tells Joe. 

"Which reminds me... Patty? She's a smart girl. She's not buying your whole sick story, FYI" Joe says. 

"All right" Barry says rolling his eyes. 

Henry blinks a few times before looking at Barry. "Patty? Would this be a new girlfriend?" Henry smiles. 

"Uh, yeah, something like that, yeah. We'll talk about it on the way to the bus station" Barry smiled nervously while walking his dad out the door. He knew everybody was team Cisco and Barry but they would never understand why he couldn't ever be with him. Honestly he didn’t understand his own reasoning behind him not wanting to be with him anymore.

"Come on" he says, placing his hands on his dad's shoulders as they walk out the door. 

Henry gives one last wave to Iris and Joe. "Bye". 

"See ya". 

Soon as they are on the porch, Henry immediately stops Barry. "Sooooooooo, you have a girlfriend" Henry asked.

"Let me guess your team, Barry and Cisco too" he laughed. 

Henry laughed with him. “No, I'm team Barry. Which means I care about you Barry and I want you to be happy. So if this girls makes you happy Barry than I'm happy for you".

Barry chuckled and rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Thanks dad".

"But let me say this" he started noticing Barry change in demeanor in one of annoyance as soon as he started. "No seriously".

"Nothing has changed, as far as your feelings. Remember Barry I'm your father, and I know you. You still care of about Cisco"....

Barry cuts him off. "Dad..." 

Henry puts his hand up. "No, you still love this boy...."

"I...." Barry tries, but rolls his eyes as soon as Henry cuts him off again.

"Barry I understand if you want to try something new because you’re afraid that Cisco will get hurt, but what about Patty?" Henry asked following Barry to the car. 

"What about her? I like her. She's really nice and we have a lot in common" Barry shrugs. 

"Buts she just a distraction because you won't let yourself have what you really want" Henry states. "Listen Barry if you want to try and make this thing with Patty work you have to make sure that your feelings for Cisco are truly gone. Because if not, she's gonna be the one who hurts the most in this".

Barry sighs but nods. He knows his dad is right, the last thing he wants is for Patty to be another Eddie. 

"Thanks dad" he says. 

 

When Barry walked into the police station he found Patty in his lab, doing some CSI work. "I hear you've been spending a lot of time up here" he chuckles nervously. 

"Well, you know what they say. When the CSI's away... It's good to see you on your feet again. Must've been all that canned soup you had. Or maybe the homemade stuff Joe brought you?" She says turning her back to Barry, Barry could hear in her voice how annoyed she was. 

"It... yeah, I wasn't actually sick, Patty" he says. 

"Yeah, I figured that out. Why did you lie to me? “She asks.

"My dad was in town. I needed to spend some time with him".

She frowns. "And you couldn't just tell me that?" 

"You gotta understand, Patty, my dad was convicted of murder. When someone's image has been tarnished like that, it's hard for some people to see past it".

"And you seriously think I'm one of those people?" She asks.

Barry lowers his head. "No, I know, I should've given you more credit" 

"No, you should've given yourself more credit. This isn't about your father, Barry. This is about you. I need to know that I can trust you if we're gonna do this" she states. 

Barry sighs and rubs the back of his head. "I don't think I can do this Patty".

She shifts her body nervously, and smiles before a frown quickly replaces it. "What? What? Why?”

Barry walks closer to her. "Patty don't get me wrong you are an amazing woman, and we have so much in common. But........”

"But there is someone else" she finishes. 

Barry nods slowly, and Patty nods with him. "It's ok, I’m glad you told me now before the attachment process started" she laughed.

"Yea" Barry laughed. 

Patty moved forward and gave Barry a hug. "Good luck Barry, I hope you find happiness with this person" she says walking out of the lab and back to her desk. 

Barry actually felt a small bit of relief at how well she took that. Barry had to be the most confused, complicated person in the world. He didn't want to be with Cisco for the....maybe obvious reasons but he didn't want Cisco to be with anybody else either. It was also hard to not want to be with Cisco when all his family was team Barrisco, and wanted to see him happy. 

Barry took a deep breath, he was currently standing outside Cisco apartment. Debating if he wanted to knock on the door. No matter how he felt Cisco was still his best friend and he wanted to spend some time with him. 

Barry found himself knocking on the door. "Coming!" He heard on the other side.

Cisco opened the door, smiling when he saw Barry. "Hey Bar, what's brings you by?"

Barry looked at him nervously before walking into the apartment. He looked around and noticed a picnic basket sitting on the table. Barry furrowed his brow at that, what does Cisco need a picnic basket for? 

"What's the basket for?" Barry asked, nervously shoving his hands in his pockets.

Cisco looked at it and back to Barry. "Oh, I ahhhh.....I'm gonna take it to Carter and see if I can make it up to him for leaving our date so suddenly" he shrugs. 

"I found this cool projector, so I thought it be a fun way to end our ruined first date" Cisco says. 

Barry nods, looking down. "So you really like this guy, huh?"

 Cisco blinks at Barry, and says nothing. If Cisco didn't know any better he would swear Barry was jealous. "Maybe....I don't know. I'm really just getting to know him".

"What about Patty? You seem to like her" Cisco says.

"We...uhhhh, we decided that we were better off just friends" Barry nods.

"Really, you both seemed perfect for each other" Cisco shakes his head. 

"Yea, well my heart wasn't in it...sooo" Barry shrugs.

"Still haven't moved on from Eddie? “Cisco asks. 

Barry shakes his head. "Trust me, I moved on from Eddie a long time ago".

Barry took a deep breath before deciding whether or not to tell Cisco about the break up. "We actually broke up before he died”.

Cisco just stared at Barry wide eyed, before he moved closer to Barry. “What? Why didn’t you say anything?” he asked.

Barry just shrugged. “I don’t know, it’s not something I was really in the mood to discuss considering the circumstances”.

Cisco nodded. “I guess that’s true. If you don’t mind me asking why you did guys break up. I seriously thought you guys would be together forever”.

Exactly what Barry was afraid of! Now what was he supposed to say? Well I broke up with him because I’m in love with you but I can’t be with you because I’m afraid that if I do, I’ll lose you. Yea, that’s completely out of the question.

“We just learned that we were better off as friends, I mean don’t get me wrong I loved Eddie but I realized that he always had my back, he was always there for me even as kids and he was safe for me. After everything I’ve been through I knew he would never hurt me” Barry looked at Cisco, who had his head tilted listening to the conversation.

He looked away from Barry taking a deep breath before looking back. “Do you think I would ever hurt you?”

Barry shook his head. “I don’t think you could ever hurt me as much as I could hurt you”.

“Why do you think you would hurt me worse?” Cisco twisted into one of curiosity.

_“I never was able to trust anybody after that, and I told myself the next person I had sex with would be someone I loved, and trusted. Guess it turns out you can’t trust anybody” Cisco says walking around Barry to leave the room, Barry grabbed his wrist._

_“_ _Cisco please….”_

_Cisco pulled his wrist away. “No Barry, I don’t want to hear anything you have to say. Your no better than he was” and with that Cisco left the room._

Barry blinks a few times remembering how the alternate timeline played out, and how hurt Cisco was because of him. That memory was always in his mind, it’s something that he couldn’t forget.“I’m a tainted soul Cisco, look at everything that has happened because of me and my selfishness. People died, loved ones lost……”

Cisco waved his hand in Barry face. “Stop! Stop right now!!! What happened is NOT your fault. Ronnie……Eddie. They chose to help you, they didn’t have to but they did. This is all Harrison Wells……”

“Eobard….” Barry cut in.

“Whoever, this is because of him. So stop blaming yourself for something that is not your fault……..ok” Cisco says. “You’re my best friend Barry, and I know you would never do anything to hurt me or anyone intentionally. We all knew the risk and we stood by you”.

Barry just shrugged. Cisco could tell that his friend really needed him right now. “You know what, forget Carter, I think you could use a movie night more than he could”.

Barry shook his head right away. “No, I don’t want to ruin your date, I’m fine”.

“Nonsense, it’s no big deal besides it’s not like Carter and I are together anyway, and let’s face it. It’s probably not worth my time anyway. He seems like somebody that comes with a lot of baggage. He seems like the type to have some crazy ex who will want to destroy the relationship” Cisco laughed at his own Joke, causing Barry to chuckle.

“Cisco, you sure about this?” Barry asked.

Cisco grabbed his basket, and took Barry’s hand. “I am 100% sure this is what I want” Cisco says leading him to the door. “Let’s go have a movie night”.

Barry blushed and couldn’t hide the smile that spread across his face. Maybe things would finally start to look up for him.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Barry. Cisco and Wells travel to Earth-2


	5. Welcome to Earth-2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry. Cisco and Wells travel to Earth-2

"Is anybody else feeling panic right now? I chickened out of bungee jumping when I was 18, but this is categorically a lot scarier" Cisco rambled, his nerves had seriously gotten the best of him.

"Once I turn the speed cannon on, the three of you will be able to pass through unharmed, but Barry, you need to make sure you keep your speed up" Jay stated, completely ignoring Cisco.

Cisco rolls his tongue around in his mouth. "Mm-hmm. I... I got no spit".

"Jaws." 

"I'm not just quoting "Jaws." I mean my mouth is really dry right now” he says trying to keep a steady breath. 

"Do not get distracted by anything you see along the way."

"What are we gonna see?” Cisco asks.

“Everything” Jay replies.

Barry nods and grabs Wells and Cisco. “Do it, Jay”

“Okay, let's go” A breach is opened, giving Barry the cue to grab the pair. Soon as he gets a good grip he runs through, and it’s only a matter of seconds before they are standing at the Earth 2 star labs.

“Holy 2001. I feel like I just opened my third eye” Cisco says making sure nothing bad happened to his body but also making sure his twizzlers where still there.

“Oh, my God” Barry says, kind of speechless that it looks almost the same as theirs. “Come on”.

Wells leads them from the cortex to the main building. Barry and Cisco were completely blown away at this star labs, basically what their star labs could have one day become. It was completely breathtaking, and Cisco could not help but get a few pictures for back home.

“Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore” he says taking a picture of a nearby statue.

“This is amazing. Half these things are just ideas on our Earth” Barry smiles.

Cisco grabs his arm and pulls him towards the star labs sign for pictures. “Come here”.

Wells rolls his eyes at the two. “Ramon”.

“What?” he shrugs.

“Not a sightseeing tour”.

“Speak for yourself. We want our grandkids to know we did cool stuff” Cisco says looking at his camera. Barry actually blushes at the comment, wondering if he meant with him or not.

“Dr. Wells”.

Wells smiles and extends his hand. “Henry”.

“Welcome back. We weren't expecting you” Henry accepts the gesture.

Cisco and Barry completely stop in their tracks, grabbing each other when they are greeted by Henry. “Ahh!”

Wells tilts his head before responding. “Yes... I didn't tell anyone I was coming back”.

“I thought you might've left town with all that's been happening. Right. Are your friends okay?” he asks keeping a smile but putting somewhat of a guard up incase these two needed a security escort out.

“Yes, they're... they're fine. They're excitable. This is, um... Henry Hewitt, lab assistant” Henry introduced, hoping to soften the pair.

“Pleased to make your acquaintance” he says extending his hand, if Dr. Wells trusted them then they couldn’t be that bad.

“And you... um, I’m…Cis….I’m Barry. This is Cisco” Barry says nervously.

Cisco extends his hand. “I'm Cisco. Yeah. And you are just a nice, normal guy”

And now they had officially embarrassed Wells. “Okay”.

“Dr. Wells, will you and your visitors be needing the conference room?” Henry asks.

Wells waves the idea off. “Not necessary, Henry. Our visit will be short”.

Henry nods. “Okay. Good to see you. Good to see you, sir”.

As soon as he is out of sight Wells turns around and throws his hands up. “He's a bad guy on Earth-1. He looks just like him”.

Wells roll his eyes and makes his way to his office.

  
_A reminder that a citywide curfew has been issued. No unauthorized person is to be out after 9:00 p.m. A recent increase in Zoom attacks has led Mayor Snart to extend the curfew. The curfew was first issued after a series of terror attacks throughout the city..._

  
Harry takes a look at the TV, trying to get an update on what was happening in the city since he left. "It's worse. It's worse than when I left. Zoom has turned up his reign of terror" he says.

"All right, then let's find Zoom fast. Cisco, do your thing" Barry says. 

"All right, Zoom... You can run, but you can't hide" Cisco says putting on his glasses. He took a moment, give the vibe a chance to come about but nothing was happening.

"All right, you know what? You guys are crowding my space a little bit. I can't perform like this under pressure, okay? If you could just step back just a little bit, I need to do my thing. All right. My mojo" he stated.

"Yes, all right" Barry says moving back, motioning for Harry to move back. 

"Thank you. Take two... Mm, ah. All right, Zoom. You can run... “Cisco tries again but before he can finish Harry cuts him off. 

"Ramon, what's happening? You know, I don't know, okay? I can't see anything. I don't know what's wrong. Maybe I lost my powers" he tires.

Barry furrows his brows. "I didn't lose my powers. Why would you lose your powers?”

Cisco takes a moment to observe the glasses when he notices the problem. "Oh, here we go, the wavelength trigger's not responding, but that only happens if...”

"The frequency is imbalanced" Harry finishes. "Our Earth vibrates at a different frequency than yours".

"Harry, without that frequency... We're up a creek" Cisco says.

_The latest attack was orchestrated by Zoom, and we understand that citizens of Central City are scared, but I can assure you the CCPD has been working diligently..._

Barry looks to the TV when hears a familiar voice, actually a very family voice. "That's me" he points at the screen.

Cisco laughs and pulls out one of twizzlers. "Yeah, it is". 

_Under the leadership of Detective West. We will stop Zoom. That's a promise._

"The leadership of Detective West. So Joe's still a cop here, but more importantly, I'm still a CSI"

Then it hits him. "I have a plan". 

Before they can grasp that Barry probably has a bad idea, Barry is gone and back in the room, but he is not alone.

"What just happened?" Barry-2 asks, somewhat panicked and taking in his surroundings. 

"Oh-ho-ho-ho, doppelganger" Cisco says excited to see another version of Barry. Barry-2 stops and looks at Cisco but walking up to him quickly. 

"Cisco?" He says to Cisco, who stared wide eyed and takes a step back. "Honey, what is going on? Wait, wait, wait, wait, how did I get here? What... who are... who are you? How do you look like me?" So many questions he had right now. He was kidnapped and confused and scared. 

"Allen, what are you doing?" Harry asks.

"Harrison Wells" Barry-2 chuckles, stunned. "Thee Harrison Wells. Oh, my God, am I in S.T.A.R. Labs? Okay, I have no idea what is going on here, but I've always wanted to meet you. Your thesis on string phenomenology was revolutionary to me".

"Oh, man" Cisco says looking at Barry. 

"I had the magazine laminated so I could keep it. I... I just want to emulate... This guy's incredible" Barry-2 went on. 

"I won an award for it, right over there, you see?” Harry says disgracing Barry-2 giving him enough time to throw the Taser at Barry. Barry quickly caught it and hit Barry-2.

Cisco was a little taken back, he was so focused on taking in Barry-2, and how much different he was then his Barry he never evens noticed Harry throwing Barry the Taser. 

"Wh... wh... what did you do? What's wrong with you? Have you turned into an evil you?"

Barry laughed at Cisco's cuteness. "Relax. Just knocked him out". 

Cisco shrugged. "Oh, well, why'd you even bring him over here?" He asked going back to his candy. 

"So he could become him" Harry pointed out. 

"While you guys work on the goggles, I will go to CCPD as him and see if I can figure out what information they have on Zoom's previous sightings. We can use those sightings to triangulate Zoom's hideout"

"Good. That's a good plan. Just remember what Jay said, okay? Things here are all sorts of trippy. Look, it'll be fine. I can handle it" Barry smiles will putting on Barry-2 glasses. "It'll be easy"

   
It took no time for Barry to make it to the CCPD, I mean everything was literally the same. The streets, restaurants, stores, signs. They all were different in appearance, maybe a few details where different but they had the same name and where the exact same place there were on earth 1. The CCPD was somewhat the same, somewhat different. The thing that surprised him the most was the face that Detective West was actually Iris. If that wasn’t a kick in the pants, he only made small talk with her for a little bit before she directed him home, saying that his husband had a family emergency. _Holy shit he was married._ Barry walked into his home, which was basically Joe's home just a little different. "This is nice" he whispered to himself talking in its beauty. He looked down at the table by the door, and the first thing he saw was his wedding picture. He and Cisco where kissing in the picture, it's looked as if they had just exchanged their vows. He ran his fingers over the picture, and smiled at their happiness. They were married.....Cisco was his husband and it looked as if they were happy in this world. 

"DADDY!" Barry heard, that's when he saw the little boy running towards him. On instinct he bent down and scooped the little boy up in his arms. He looked to be no more than 2 or 3. 

"Hey Buddy" he said taking in the little boys features _whoa where did that come from?_ He reminded him so much of his dad, he looked so much like him when he was a kid. He did take Cisco's black hair, and skin tone but everything else resembled him so much.

"What took you so long to get home daddy?" The little boy asked. 

Barry just smiled, trying not to cry. This was so surreal. "Ugh, daddy had some extra work to do before he could leave. But I'm here now".

"Good thing you are" Cisco said walking into the living room. "This little one was acting up in school again".

Barry stared wide eyed at him, he was in a white robe, and his hair was damp clearly indicating he had just taken a shower. But the baby bump didn't go unnoticed by Barry. He was gorgeous, literally the most beautiful thing Barry had ever seen. Barry was completely frozen in place, as Cisco moved closer to him. He wasn't exactly sure what to do.

Soon as he was in front of Barry he leaned up and poked his lips out, waiting for Barry to meet him the rest of the way for a kiss. Barry quickly responded and leaned down, connecting their lips. 

"Ewwwwww Daddy and Papa" The little boy said covering his eyes with his hands. 

Cisco pulled back, and laughed. "Tell daddy, what you did at school today". 

The little boy crossed his arms and glared. "Papa" he whined.

"Jacob" Cisco warned, placing his hands on his hips.

Jacob Barry thought, like the newspaper article. 

Barry gulped and looked at the little boy, trying his best to think of a way his doppelgänger might handle this. "Jake, tell Daddy what you did?”

Jake sighed. "I called the teacher a Meanie, but daddy she is. I asked for more Cereal and she said no! It's not fair".

Barry almost wanted to laugh at his cuteness, he looked at Cisco who was shaking his head smiling. "Hey, life's not fair but you’re not always gonna get your way. No more calling people names, your hear me".

"Yes daddy" he pouted. 

"Good" Barry gave him a kiss on the head, and Jacob reached for Cisco. 

"Your mom called today" Cisco said taking Jacob and walking back upstairs. 

Barry slowly made it way over to the phone as if his mom was hiding next to the phone. He almost couldn't catch his breath as he tried to regain his composure. Before hitting the auto dial listed The Allens on the phone.....his phone.....in his house. 

"Allen residence" he heard his mom say. Barry didn't know what to even say to her, how to even begin. His mother was on the next line, and she was alive and well. "Hello? Uh, hello?"

Barry quickly spoke before she hung up the phone. "Mom" he smiled, wiping the tears that where pouring from his eyes. 

He heard her chuckle, he could practically see her smiling. "Wow, you certainly took your time calling back".

"Yeah, um, I'm... I'm sorry about that" he says. 

"Thank you so much for the anniversary tickets to Atlantis. Your dad and I have always wanted to go" she says full of joy and excitement. 

Barry gave a small laugh, and nodded. "Um, I'm... I'm really glad you liked them”.

Barry heard a slight pause. “Are you okay? You sound kind of strange”.

“I'm fine. I'm... I'm...”Barry stutters out.

“Hey, I know. Maybe I should give the plane tickets to you and Cisco. Nice little romantic getaway. I mean honestly you guys will probably need a vacation after my little granddaughter comes. And the kids can come stay with your father and I for a few days. We would love that” she says.

“No, I want you to use them. I'm really glad to... hear your happy, Mom” he says.

“Aw, I love you, Barry” she says.

Barry starts to cry again, some part of this felt like a healing that he had yearned for most of his life. Some part of his heart felt like it had finally been filled. “I love you too” he whispers.

“Okay, bye-bye, honey” and with that the line dies.

Cisco walks back into the room but this time he has changed his clothes into something a bit dressier. “Baby, what's wrong?” he says grabbing Barry’s hand, giving his palm a small rub.

Barry looks at his hand, then back to Cisco before wiping his face. “Uh, nothing. It was, uh... Um, it was just good to talk to my mom”.

Cisco gave an uneasy smile. “We should get ready, yeah?”

Barry nods. “Yeah. Okay”.

♪ Some things that happened ♪ ♪ For the first time ♪ ♪ Seem to be happening ♪ ♪ Again ♪ ♪ And so it seems that we have ♪ ♪ Met before ♪ ♪ And laughed before ♪ Whoa. ♪ And loved before ♪

 

Barry walked in staring wide eyes at Joe. “Joe can sing” he says in awe.

Cisco furrows his brow and frowns. “He's the best” he slowly says before putting his hand on Barry’s forehead. “Are you sure you’re ok?”

Barry smiles and waves him off. “I’m fine, stop it”. Right

 

♪Who knows? ♪ ♪ Yeah, who knows ♪ ♪ Where or ♪ ♪ When? ♪ ♪ ♪ Ooh. Joe bows and lift his drink at the crowd of screams and claps before making his way over too Cisco and Barry.

 

“Hey, baby” his says to Cisco before giving his belly a small rub.

“Hey Joe” he smiles.

“Hey Joe” Barry waves.

“It's Joseph, Bartholomew” he quickly inserts.

“Joeeeeeee” Cisco warns. “Be nice. You too, babe. I'll be right back”.

Barry nods watching Cisco leave. “Yeah”.

“So you're a singer” he smiles trying to learn a little bit more about this Joe.

“So you're still an idiot” he glares, taking a sip of his drink and rolling his eyes.

Barry laughs, thinking, maybe this is all a joke. I mean come on why would Joe hate him, he basically raised him. Then it hits Barry, that this isn’t his earth. “Are you upset with me? Or you just... you just don't like me?”

“Have you lost your mind? Central City's going to hell in a handbasket because this lunatic Zoom is running around killing folks, and you got my daughter on the front lines” Joe snapped.

“Wait... wh... me?” Barry says in disbelief.

“It has always been about you, Bartholomew. You're the most selfish person I've ever met. And I'm a musician; we're all selfish. You wanted to get your PhD so you could further your career, and she had to become a police officer. I told you time and time again that I didn’t want her involved in that mess and you still persuaded her to join the force. We both know that she'd be safer going back to write at the newspaper” Joe sighs. Barry could practically see the steams coming from his ears.

“Oh, Dad, please, stop. CCPN was an internship. All I did was get coffee for real writers. Being a cop like grandpa is what I love. You raised me to be tough, and I am. Everything's fine, and we're here to have fun, right?” Iris says making her entrance and taking a seat next to her dad.

Joe rolls his eyes, but answers nonetheless. “Right” he says making his way back to the mic.

“So can we talk more about why Joseph doesn't like me?” Barry asks Iris, eyes still glued on Joe.

Iris tilts her head and frowns. “What's there to talk about? I mean, you can't stand him either”.

“Right” Barry smiles, he was completely lost.

Barry looks around for Cisco, he had been gone a lot longer than he should have. “Where’s Cisco?” he asks.

Before either can respond, Iris’s watch went off. Barry immediately looked towards the door as it same open right around the alarms sounded. “Don't stop singing, old man. That's our song” and that’s when he saw her, _Caitlin. Ronnie_

She smiled and slowly made her way around the room, she could practically smell the fear radiating from everyone, and it gave her so much life. “So which one of you lounge lizards is in the wrong universe? Hmm? Show of hands. Don't be shy.

Iris moves for her gun but is stopped Barry’s hand.

He shook his head, Caitlin seeing the motion looked over and smirked. “Hey, handsome. You got something you want to tell me?” she asks.

“No. No?” she asks moving closer to him, she gives a dramatic sigh before making her way over to Ronnie “Ronnie, no one's talking to me” she pouts.

“What if I make 'em scream?” he says.

Iris takes the distraction and pulls her gun from her purse. “CCPD! Everyone get out of here. All right, go, go. You are both under arrest”.

Caitlin tilts her head in a mocking manner and raises her hands. “Ladies first”.

“Caitlin” she hears looking at Barry. “I haven't heard that name in a long time”.

“But that is your name, isn't it? Your real name? Please, look... I know you. Don't do this” Barry pleads.

“If you knew me at all, you would know that I hate the name Caitlin. I'm Killer Frost” and with that she shoots.

Barry ducks and Ronnie takes the chance to get Iris, but as soon as he shoots Joe jumps in front of her. “DAD!”

Barry quickly grabs Ronnie and Caitlin and runs someone completely out of sight and where they can’t hurt anybody. “Well, hello, breacher” Killer Frost says.

“He's a speedster, sis” Ronnie laughs.

“Oh, I'm shivering. I've been dying to kill The Flash” she mocks.

Barry shakes his head. “I don't want to hurt you” he says.

Trust me, you won't. Come on. God, this is making me so hot.

“This ain't over, breacher! I’ll make sure to tell Cisco you said Hello” Ronnie smirks before leaving. Before started wide eyed at them, but before he can even follow he hears Iris. “Barry!”

 

  
“I don’t understand what you still see in this boy, he is trash” Cisco-2 heard, he blinked a few times to try and regain his vision then slowly lifted up. He went to touch his stomach, but found his hands has been tied behind his back. He was very happy to feel his daughter moving around, which meant she was perfectly fine. He took in his surroundings and couldn’t quite get a feel for where he was, but he did know it was some kind of warehouse.

“Looky, Looky, looky who has finally come back to me” the voice all too familiar.

“Ronnie?” he says.

“Of course it’s me baby, and I finally have you all to myself again” he smirked, running his hand down Cisco’s cheek.

Cisco quickly turned away and Ronnie roughly grabbed his chin. “Don’t turn away from me, you know how much I hate that”.

“I see you haven’t changed at all” Cisco spat as Ronnie roughly let go of his face.

Ronnie laughed and took a few steps back. “I see you have….a husband….a baby……...”

Cisco shook his head. “Things I never wear gonna get from you!”

Ronnie just stared at him before an evil smirk crossed his face. “Still an ungrateful little smart ass I see” Killer frost says.

“Still a bitch I see” Cisco smirks.

A smirk slowly came across her face. “Now, look who grew themselves a set a big set of balls” she replies.

“A little too big” Ronnie kneels down in front of Cisco, and touches his stomach. “Wow, someone is energetic in there, daddy might want to watch what he says if he knows what’s good for this little one”.

Cisco says nothing, just keeps the glare on Ronnie. “I loved you Cisco, I gave you a mansion, cars, clothes anything you wanted…..and you……you walked out on me the first chance you got”.

“You were an abusive drunk, you were more in love with your money then you ever were with me. You know how many trips I took to the hospital with broken bones and bruises I had to cover up so you didn’t go to jail, how many miscarriages I suffered, HOW MANY I’M SORRYS I HAD TO LISTEN TOO EVERYTIME! You were never gonna change, and I see being a metahuman just brought your evil soul to the surface even more” Cisco cried.

Without even thinking Ronnie backhanded Cisco. “Watch…….your…….mouth”.

Cisco slowly looked back at Ronnie smirking. “Why don’t you let me out this chair big boy? Afraid I’ll use these big balls and hit you back?”

Ronnie went to raise his hand again. “Calm down Ronnie, we need him alive…..sadly” Killer Frost says.

Ronnie backed off. “I don’t want him dead. When this is all over you are coming back with me, and I dare that husband of yours try to stop me from taking you back”.

 

  
“Killer Frost and Deathstorm” Wells repeats.

“You know them?” Barry asks.

“More importantly, they know you now; they know that you're here”.

“So Caitlin and Ronnie's doppelgangers are evil? Those are some dope names, though” Cisco says admiring Earth-2’s taste in names.

“This was supposed to be a surgical mission, Allen. Find Zoom's lair. Rescue Jesse. Get in, get out, not get involved” Wells reminds.

“All right, well, look, I am involved, okay? Joe's in the hospital. They nearly killed him and Cisco’s been taken” Barry says sighing, and pitching his nose.

Cisco is alert right away when he hears his name. “Wait you found my doggleganger?” he says a smirk slowly forming on his face.

“Yes, I did and he was kidnapped by deathstorm and Killer frost” Barry says rubbing his hands over his face, god this has been a long confusing day.

“No! No he hasn’t…Cisco is sitting right there and Joe West, your Joe West, is alive and safe on your Earth, so is Caitlin, so is Iris. These people, Barry, they're mirror reflections. As far as your life is concerned, they don't exist. Killer Frost, Deathstorm, they know that you're here. It's not long before Zoom does too, and then my daughter's dead, and that's on you.”

“Jesse still has time, okay? Cisco needs me now, they could kill him” Barry says trying not to let his anger get the best of him.

“If they wanted him dead, he would be dead by now this is obviously a trap to lure you to them” Wells says beginning to pace, he knew Barry shouldn’t have went off on his own. Between Cisco, Joe and Iris Barry mind was compromised and he was no longer focused on what they came here for in the first place.

“Well it worked because I am not leaving him to die with them, he may not be my Cisco but he does have a husband and a family” Barry says grabbing his jacket and glasses. “I need to check on Iris and Joe”.

“Wait my doggleganger is married” Cisco says wanting answers.

Wells rolled his eyes, Barry was in way too deep on this earth. “She is not Iris!”

“She is Iris! Okay, she is to me! No matter what universe I'm in, Cisco is the man I love and protect and they are my family! I would think by now you should get how important family is. I'm going, Wells. I have to” Barry says storming out of the room not even realizing he just admitted his feelings to Cisco.

“Find Zoom!” Wells says ignoring Cisco’s completely shocked expression.

Cisco finally took a chance to swallow the lump in his throat, how was he supposed to do anything after that?

Cisco took a moment to gather his himself, so he could focus on the task at hand. But best believe when they get back to earth Bartholomew has some explaining to do.

 

  
It took some convincing and a few lies but Barry managed to figure out a way to get Iris to believe that Cisco was the twin brother of her Cisco. Considering Earth-2 Cisco was taken in by Joe, and didn’t really have much family history it didn’t take much convincing.

“Hey, maybe... maybe your snitch was wrong. I mean, maybe they're not even here” Cisco hoped.

As if one cue Iris’s watch sounded. “No, they're here” she says pulling out her gun

It was then that Killer Frost and Ronnie made there appearance. “You didn't knock. How rude” she smirked.

It was then that Earth-2 Cisco and Cisco made eye contact. Holy crap he is pregnant…..

“Drop 'em, let Cisco go!” he heard Iris as he was pulled out of his trance.

Ronnie kissed his cheek. “But I’d rather keep him close to me” Cisco tried to move away.

_This is surreal_ “Ronnie. Is Martin Stein in there?” Cisco asks.

“Oh, I haven't let him out in year’s breacher. Doesn't talk much anymore” he laughed, Killer frost not far behind.

“You killed my father, you evil bitch” Iris spat.

“He shouldn't have palled around with a breacher. That's a big no-no as far as Zoom's concerned” Killer Frost says.

“I can't believe you two work for Zoom” Cisco says.

Killer frost raised her brow as if offended. “Do you not strike you as criminal’s breacher? Maybe we should prove that we aren’t so innocent”.

She makes her way over to Cisco-2 grabbing his hand. “Does he need to lose a hand or a leg for you to get how serious we are?”

“No!!”Iris yells.

Killer frost moved her hand to Cisco’s cuff and froze them causing them to break, freeing Cisco’s hands.

“Flash, save us!” Cisco yells, and quickly goes for Cisco-2 moving him to stand next to Cisco. The pair exchanged glances again really taking in the fact that they were nothing alike.

“Who the hell are you?” Iris asks.

“Look, Detective, just get out of here, all right?”

“No, not without them” she doesn’t even Barry much time to react when you shoots in the direction of Ronnie and Caitlin. Ronnie flames on immediately and fires at Iris and Barry. Barry quickly grabs Iris and runs to a move safe a secure place.

“Stay here!” he says.

“Well aren’t you going to do something” Cisco-2 says from the place that had been hiding.

Cisco frowns. “What do you want me to do, Vibe them to death?” he asks.

Cisco-2 throws his hands out as if that was a logical answer. “Ok, I’ll touch him and hope that he doesn’t kill me while the vibe is doing its thing “Cisco mocks.

Cisco-2 rolls his eyes, it obvious Cisco doesn’t know the full extent of his powers, he stands up cause Cisco to grab at his pants. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Showing you how a real vibe works” he says making his way towards Ronnie and Killer frost.

“Cisco!” he hears Barry yell.

This gets Ronnie attention and he slowly makes his way over too Cisco. “Well, finally decide to give up fighting have we?” he smirks.

Cisco chuckles. “You don’t know me anymore Ronnie, I’m not the person you once loved”.

Cisco stared wide eyed at the pair, Ronnie and Cisco even dated on this earth? But this is defiantly not the version of Ronnie Cisco loved.

“I know you Cisco, you would never hurt me. You were always weak” he says flaming on, ready to throw a blast at Cisco.

Before Ronnie could react, Cisco threw a vibrational blast that sent him flying into a wall. “Guess, I’m not as weak as you thought” he says.

He goes to shoot Ronnie again, but sees Caitlin out of the corner of his eye. I quickly opens a breach, disappearing and reappearing behind her. He quickly sends a punch.

She falls to the ground touching her lip. “Well, guess I was right” she smirks.

Barry quickly runs to grab Cisco and get him out of harm’s way. “What are you doing?” he asks.

“I get it Cisco you’re really powerful but your daughter is more important. This is too dangerous for you right now”.

Before Cisco-2 can respond Barry is sent flying into a wall by Ronnie, Ronnie Releases everything he has on Barry. “Noooooooo! Zoom wanted him alive. You know what Zoom will do if you don't obey him”.

Ronnie didn’t even get a chance to stop when he felt a vibration going through his heart. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Killer Frost screamed.

“What did I say you should do if you encountered a speedster? Leave him unharmed….yes?” Zoom points to Barry. “Does this look unharmed to you?”

Ronnie gasps for air but it isn’t much longer before his body falls limp. “I'm happy to see at least one of you knows their place” zoom says in the direction of Caitlin dropping the body.

Zoom quickly grabs Barry and takes off. “Barry!” Cisco yells.

This is defiantly not how this was supposed to go. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The team tries to figure out a way to get home.....


	6. Escape to Earth 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team tries to figure out a way to get home.....

_Look around, Flash. This is the last place you'll ever see. I know you're here, Harrison Wells, and you did not come alone_

_You can try to hide... But I'm the fastest man alive. I will scour this city until I hunt you down. And when I do, all of you will feel my wrath._

 

“Harry! Don't shoot!” Cisco yells as soon he sees Harry’s gun pointed in his direction.

Harry rolls his eyes and lowers his gun. “Damn it, Ramon. Where's Allen?” he asks.

“Zoom took him”.

Harry Freezes in place “What?”

Cisco nods quickly and puts down his bag on Harry’s desk. “We tracked down Deathstorm and Killer Frost, met my doppelganger, Then Zoom killed Deathstorm for hurting a speedster. But then he left Killer Frost alive and then took off with Barry…” Cisco rambled on.

Harry didn’t like what he heard, curious he asked. “How are you still alive?”

Cisco shrugged. “Looks like he cares even less about me than you do, Harry”.

Harry reloaded his gun as panic started to take over. “No, no. Zoom doesn't do anything by accident. Did he follow you here?”

Cisco rolled his eyes, looking in his bag for Reverbs glasses. “I've seen “Heat” like 50 times, okay? I know how to shake a tail. He didn't follow me. But check this out. I jacked these from my dead ringer. I think we can tweak these puppies... use them to find Zoom…... “

Harry snatched the glasses. “Damn it, Ramon, we don't have time for this. Zoom is hunting us... Zoom is hunting us! We need to make an alternate plan, because if we don't, Zoom...”

“Stop thinking like that, okay? We're gonna find Jesse, and we're gonna find Barry. I know we will” Cisco says snatching the glasses back.  

_Hello? Is anyone there? Okay, whoever's responsible for this, oh, ho, ho... boy, we're gonna have words, the two of us, okay? This is... this is not okay._

“Barry-2” Cisco says.

Harry rolls his eyes, and goes to the locked room he was currently holding Barry-2. As soon as the door was opened Harry made his way over to Barry-2 unlocking the cuffs he put on him when he threw him in the room. “Dr. Wells, this is very disappointing. I mean, you should be ashamed of yourself. You can't just lock someone in a room like this. How long was I in here for?” he asks following him outside the room.

“Barely a day” Harry very nonchalant.

“One day? One day? Oh, jeez, my husband's gonna be worried sick…….” Barry-2 says panicked.

“Don’t worry I dropped your husband off at CCPD, on my way here” Cisco says making himself known.

“Cisco!” Barry- 2 says pulling him in his arms shielding him from Harry. “Honey are you ok? Did he kidnap you too? YOU ANIMAL!!!!”

He feels Cisco’s stomach and looks at him wide eyed. “Before you say anything, I AM NOT your husband. He is at the CCPD with Iris, he is fine, and your daughter is fine” Cisco says pushing Barry-2 away.

Barry-2 squints when looking at Cisco. “Then who are you? Cisco never told me about a twin”.

“That’s because he doesn’t have one. I’m from another Earth which we don’t have time to explain” Cisco says.

“The heck if you don’t! I'm sorry, fellas, but I demand to know what the heck is going on here this instant” Barry-2 says trying to intimidate the pair by throwing his hands on his hips. Almost like he was speaking too two kids instead of two adults.

“Barry, this is a very long story. One that we don't have time to tell right now. We're sorry we locked you in that room for a day, but right now, you need to leave. You need to gather...” Harry starts and the alarms soon sound. 

“He's here” Harry says.

After their run in with Zoom, they quickly made it back to the CCPD, they figure that their best bet was trying to convince Barry-2 to convince Iris to help them find Barry and Jesse.

Barry walked into his lab and the first thing he was greeted with was the sight of his son. “Hey bud, how are you doing?” he asks kissing his sons head.

Cisco completely froze where he was… _holy crap they have a kid already, and he looks just like Barry, this has to be a dream_.

“Honey, you’re ok!” Cisco-2 says giving Barry a hug.

“Yea I’m fine, these 2 ingrates” he points to Cisco and Harry. “Kidnapped me, so that my lookalike could be me apparently….”

Cisco-2 looks confused. “Wait, so that wasn’t you yesterday?” he asks.

“No” she shakes his head. “No, look, I... I know that this is hard to believe, but I mean, it is just like that sci-fi series, “Commander Carl, Space Marshal of the Galaxy, where Carl gets sucked into a black hole and ends up on another planet that he thinks is Earth, but really it's Earth... of another universe”.

Everyone starred at Barry, completely confused by whatever reference he was referring too. “Have... have you guys not s... oh, it's a seminal episode. You should check it out”.

“I like it daddy” Jake says smiling at Barry.

“I know you do bud” he says hugging his son tighter.

Cisco-2 thinks about it. “So that's why you weren't wearing your wedding ring yesterday. And... and that... that kiss was... was so...” he says.

Cisco eyes widened. “He kissed you?” he asked.

Cisco-2 nodded. “I'm... I'm sorry. He got frisky with you? No, no, no, no, no. Okay, I'm gonna have to find this guy and give him a piece of my mind”.

Cisco chuckled. “Don't give him too much. Barry tells us you've been tracking Zoom” Harry says to Iris.

“Yeah, I've been trying to. Why?” she asks.

“We need to find his lair” Cisco says.

“Lair?”

Cisco shrugs. “He's a bad guy; I'm calling it a lair”.

Iris is completely bewildered. “Zoom is looking for you. Why are you going after him?”

“Zoom has my daughter and our Barry, and we need to rescue them both” Harry explains.

“Look, I want to find Zoom just as much as anybody, but no one can track him. The only person who would know where he would be hiding someone would be a meta that's worked with him” she says.

Then it hits Cisco. “A meta like Killer Frost?”

Yeah, maybe. But Zoom kept her alive yesterday because she always obeys him. There is no way that she's gonna tell you where he is” Iris says crossing her arms.

“I'm not so sure about that. If she loved Deathstorm as much as my Caitlin loved Ronnie, I think she'd be more than upset at Zoom for killing him” Cisco says...

Iris shakes her head at the idea. “Look, finding her is gonna be just as hard as finding Zoom”.

“If anyone can do it... My husband can” Cisco-2 says smiling at Barry.

Barry-2 looks at Cisco-2 and then back at the group. “Right, yes. I can, actually. Um, all right” he says opening his computer.

“Okay, well it looks like Patty Spivot was a CSI tech on most of the Killer Frost cases. She's pretty thorough, so...”

Cisco cuts Barry-2 off. “What's that?” he asks noticing he has a full profile on Killer frost.

“Oh, this is Killer Frost meta-data collected from numerous crime scenes... DNA trace movements, facial recognition, temperature fluctuations specific to her. My algorithm compiles all the data and gives us an approximate location. It works on most metas, except for Zoom, of course. He's too fast... never leaves a trace. Okay. Looks like the best bet's the woodlands” he confirms.

Cisco-2 smiles down at his husband. “Best CSI in Central City”.

“You know where that is, right?” Cisco asks Harry, who nods moving towards the door.

“Wait, I'm going with you guys. You're gonna need some help” Iris moves with them only to be stopped by Harry.

“Okay. Iris, I... “ she doesn’t give him a chance to complete what he was trying to say.

“Zoom and his followers are the reason that my father is dead. If I can stop him from killing anyone else, I'm gonna try” she says grabbing her gun, putting it back in her hoister.

“Okay, then I'm coming too” Barry-2 throwing his hands on his hips once again.

Cisco rolls his eyes and looks over to Cisco-2 who has moved away from the pair to focus on his son. “I’ll be back, you guys have 5 minutes to figure this out”

Cisco-2 sat holding his now sleep son, rocking him back and forth humming his favorite song. It felt so good to be back with his husband and son, and he was so thankful Ronnie was finally out of his life for good. 

 "Soooooooooooo......" Cisco says from where he had been watching, he awkwardly made his way over to Cisco-2 and sat down in front of him.

 Cisco-2 smiled at shook his head at this version of himself. "Kinda surreal isn't it? Looking at your son?”

 Cisco looked at the little boy, honestly ever since he ran into Barry's lab he couldn't take his eyes off of him. He knew in some future he and Barry had a son, a couple of kids actually. But to look at him now, actually see the little boy in person, it kinda maybe him wonder if someday he and Barry would actually ever have that. "He's beautiful, but he is your son not mine" he corrected. 

 "We may be from 2 different earths, but we are still connected Cisco" he says. 

 Cisco clears his throat, and points at Cisco-2 stomach. "What you got cooking in there?”

 Cisco-2 looks at his stomach and laughs and the way Cisco phrased the question. "A girl. We are seriously nothing alike. I wish I had your sense of humor". 

 Cisco chuckles and shakes his head. "Does Barry know you’re a meta human?"

 "Of course, Barry and I don't keep secrets from each other, I just don’t really like to use my powers. I want a normal life away from all the craziness" he says. 

 Cisco just nods. "Soooooooo how long have you guys been together?"

 "5 years" Cisco-2 smiles at Cisco’s curiosity.

 "How about you guys?" He asks.

 "Ooooooh, we aren't together, Barry and I are just friends" he says.

 Cisco furrows his brows and smirks before looking at his son. "Really, does Barry know that?”

 Cisco shifts in his chair. "What....ummmm.....what? Why would you say that?" He crosses and uncrosses his arms nervously.

 Cisco-2 laughs again and shakes his head. "You’re funny and obvious, yeah nothing alike".

 "Ok! Enough with the name calling, what does that mean? Does Barry know?" Cisco asks somewhat annoyed at the run around.

 Cisco-2 rolls his eyes. "I spent time with your Barry, and yes he is also different from my Barry. The love is still the same".

 "He was pretending, how do you know it was real" Cisco asks.

 "He looked at me the same way my Barry does. He kissed me like, I was the most special person in the world. How he most likely wants to kiss you".

 Cisco doesn't say anything, Barry confessed that he loved him. Now his doppelgänger tells him he knows for a fact he does. The problem is why hasn't his Barry ever said anything. 

 "Barry has never said anything to me, about his feelings. So I didn't know that" Cisco almost whispers. 

 "Maybe when you get back to your earth you could find out why". 

 Cisco slumps his shoulders and runs his fingers through his hair. "Yea" he says.

 Barry-2 quickly walks into the room and sits next to Cisco-2 wrapping his arm around Cisco's shoulders. "Ok honey, I want you and Jake to go to the house and lock up until I get back". 

 "What? Where are you going?" He asks. 

 “I’m going with Iris, to take on Zoom and save the world” he says taking Cisco-2’s hand.

 “That’s not….”Cisco starts.

“No. No. Barry, this is not what you do” Cisco-2 says completely cutting Cisco off.

Barry shrugs. “I know that. But I also know Joseph didn't like me too much, but he was my father-in-law. And I know he meant the world to you, he raised you. I want to make Zoom pay for the hurt he caused you”.

Cisco-2 sighs and closes his eyes. “Please be careful” he says looking back to his son.

“Promise I will”.

               

“Barry?” Cisco says looking around for Barry, it took almost 5 hours for them to find killer frost, get to Zoom’s layer, and get to the top. “Barry?”

Barry listens to make sure he hears correctly and then stands when he can see Cisco clear as day. “Cisco?”

Cisco smiles and runs up to the glasses when he sees Barry is perfectly okay, he looks over and see Jesse as well.  “How did you find this place?” Barry asked, he was so happy to see Cisco and Harry.  

“Had some help” Cisco says looking over to Barry-2 and Iris. “Don't even get me started on this guy. Oh boy”.

“Come on, let's get you out of here” Harry says to Jesse. “Frost? A little help?”

She raises her eye. “Not part of the deal”.

“Frost!” Harry growls.

“Hey, hey, hey. Bringing us up here wasn't part of the deal, either, but here you are. Something tells me you're not as cold as I thought you were” Cisco says.

A small smirk cross her face and she shrugs but makes her way over to Jesse anyway. “Maybe, maybe not” it takes no time for Jesse’s cuff to break. She makes her way over to Barry placing her hands on the glass but to no luck she wasn’t able to break the glass. She gave it another try but was had the same result.

“What's going on? Why... why isn't it working?” Barry asked.

“I don't know. I've never had this problem before” she steps back, brushing off her hands.

“Dr. Wells...” Cisco starts.  

“Carbyne. It's some form of carbyne. This cell's made out of some form of carbyne. You'll never be able to freeze him out of there” he explains.

Cisco was starting to panic at this point. “You can't phase out of there?”

 Barry just touches that glasses again and shakes his head. “Just go, all right? Before Zoom comes back”.

Cisco shakes his head quickly at that response. “We're not leaving you here”.

“I can't get out of this cell. I've tried a lot. I'm not fast enough to phase through this. You got... just leave, all right?” he tried again, all he wanted was for everyone to be safe, he didn’t want Zoom to come back and something happened to all of them without him being able to do something about it. Watching Cisco……Harry….Jesse die in front of him, he couldn’t bare it. He would figure a way out of this he always did.  

Barry-2 was quite astonish at how quickly this Barry gave up, I mean he knew Barry wanted to save them before Zoom came back up. But he was a superhero for god sakes, they weren’t supposed to give up that easy.   

“Do you know what we did to get here, Barry? We convinced her... Killer Frost... to show us the way. Then we climbed some insanely steep cliffs outside on footholds made of ice... ice! And all of us risked our lives, knowing Zoom was after us, to rescue Jesse... and you. Now, I don't know you, and you don't know me, but I can tell you that today, I... I did things that I never thought possible, because I needed to prove to my husband and sister in law and to myself that I could. Now, if I can do the impossible today, so can you. I'm just Barry Allen, but you're The Flash. If you tell yourself you can phase out of there, you'll do it” he says, he was quite pleased with his speech.

Barry nodded slowly, and raised his hand, really focusing on what he wanted. He first started vibrating his hand, still a little hesitant but he proceed to try again, this time his hand actually made it through so he quickly slipped the rest of his body through. Soon as Barry stopped vibrating, Cisco rush over to him and wrapped his arms around his waist holding him as tight as possible. Barry didn’t hesitate to put his arms around him, peeking over at Barry-2 giving a slight nod.

“Okay, let's go” Harry says making his way for the exit. “Go, come on”.

“Wait, wait! Hey, hey, hey! We're not leaving him” Barry says pointing to the man in the mask.2

Harry threw his hands up in annoyance. “Barry, there's no time”.

Zoom quickly appeared before the gang could get anywhere near the door. “He's not going anywhere, and neither are any of you. Thank you for bringing them to me” he says looking in the direction of Killer Frost.

Cisco stared, wide eyed. “You double-crossed us? He killed Ronnie!”

Cisco could see the sadness in her face, but it was quickly replaced with a smirk. “Guess my heart is as cold as you thought after all”.

“I can't believe you. Just so you know, you would be very disappointed in you right now” he says.

“Zoom. Let them go” Barry tries.

“All you need is me and Barry” Harry says lowering his gun.

“You're right. I may not be able to kill you yet, but I can kill them” he says they can practically here the smirk in his voice. “I told you I'd kill you in front of your father”.

Jesse was a sobbing mess. “No! No! No...”

“AAAAAAHHHHH” Zoom screamed when he felt the cold ice Killer frost was throwing against him.

“Get out of here” she says, she was gonna kill him.

Cisco stepped towards her. “Caitlin?”

“You were right. He killed Ronnie” she says looking over her shoulder.

“Thank you” he whispered.

Barry ran towards the masked man, again. He didn’t want to just leave him there, he was a prisoner just like he and Jesse were. Who knows that Zoom had planned for him. “I’m not leaving without him”.

“Barry, there's no time” Harry yelled.

Killer frost head whipped in Barry direction. “There's no time! I can't hold him forever” she glared, focusing her energy back to holding Zoom.

Barry sighed but walked up to the masked man. “Hey, I'm coming back for you when this is over, all right? I'm coming back!” he says, joining the rest.

Once they are safe back in the forest, Barry runs each person, back to star labs only to be greeted by Cisco-2 and Jake, whom Iris called as they were leaving Zoom’s lair.

“Honey are you ok?” Cisco-2 asks when he spots Barry- 2 coming in with Iris not far behind him, he places his hands on Barry-2’s back rubbing soothing circles. He was sure his husband had been through a lot in the last few hours.

“I'm fine. I'm just a mess” he says.

“Daddy, you look dirty” Jake says, smacking Barry-2 pants with his hands. “Where you at the playground?”

Barry-2 laughs at his son’s, sense of humor. “Yea, a really big playground, with an ice queen, and a superhero….and a psychopath” he whispers out that last part so only Cisco-2 can hear it.

“You need to get out of Central City, all right? Any place you think you'll be safe from Zoom” Barry asks the pair.  

Jake looks at Barry, placing his hands on his face as if he was thinking. “Papa and daddy there are two of you”.

This makes both Barry’s chuckle, Cisco kisses Jake’s head before he walks away.  “Yeah, we, um... we have some family in Atlantis that can help us” Barry-2 states.  

Barry nods, and places his hand on Barry-2 shoulder. “Yeah, okay, good. You may not have been struck by lightning over here like I was, but today, you risked your life to save somebody you didn't even know. That's a hero, Barry. Thank you both” he says glancing in the direction of Iris who nods back.

Barry turns to walk off…” Barry... is my father still alive on your Earth?” Iris asks.

Barry turns around. “Yeah, he is” he smiles.

“Give him a hug for me, will you?” she smiles back.

“I will”.

Barry turns to Wells and Jesse. “Hey. You guys need to get someplace safe too”

Wells nods and walks around his office grabbing a few things, Jesse follows behind. Something in her know exactly where her father wants to go. “Where are you going?” she asks.

“The only place we can” he says, he can see in her face the sadness that she may have to leave behind everything she loves.

She shakes her head. “Dad, we can't just leave”

“We have to, honey”.

“What, you want me to leave everything I have here? My friends, my family... I mean, my life” she tries, she wanted her dad to at least reason with her on this one.

“You don't have a life here anymore. Neither do I. Zoom is too powerful. I can't stop him. And as long as he is here, he's gonna hunt us down until we're dead” Wells states, he grabs the rest of what he needs and grabs Jesses hand.

“Wells, if you're coming with us, we have to go” Barry says alarm Zoom could be there in a matter of minutes.

The breach is suddenly opened back up, Barry grabs Cisco and Jesse first. “Cisco!” he hears, he immediately looks at Joe.

“Get ready to close the breach for good... Zoom's coming!” he says running away from the breach into a more secure location. A few minutes go by, neither Barry nor Wells have come through the breach. “It shouldn't be taking this long”.

It’s then that Barry and Wells make it through the breach. “Close it! Close it now!” Barry yells.

Jay throws the last bomb into the breach, watching as a starts to disappear. “You did it... you made it!” Joe pulling Barry in for a hug.

Caitlin smiled at Jay overjoyed that this was finally over, Jay smiled back and slowly made his way back to Caitlin. Before he could get to far from the breach Zoom’s hand was vibrating through this heart.

“NOOOOOOOO” Caitlin screamed, running towards him. Barry quickly sped over and grabbed her.

Zoom twisted his hand and pulled Jay’s body into the breach as it closed, leaving the group staring in horror.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cisco confronts Barry about what happened on Earth 2  
> Barry gives Cisco the surprise of a lifetime


	7. King Shark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cisco confronts Barry about what happened on Earth 2  
> Barry gives Cisco the surprise of a lifetime

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to say thank you for all the great comments from you guys, it really keeps me motivated to write more. My goal is to get you guys a chapter every Friday. It may slow down a bit the closer I get too the ending the of season 3 because I like to see how the new season plays out to determine how I want my series to end. We will see, I still have 6 chapters to be rewritten for this series before I even get started on Flashpoint Paradox, but I have most of how I want that series written drawn out in my head so it should be easy. Anyways enough of the rambling, just wanted to say thanks for the love guys, keep the comments coming.

“How's she doing?” Barry asked walking to the lab to check on Caitlin.

“Not good. We tried to get her to go home, but she refused to leave, so, you know, I just sat with her until she fell asleep” Cisco says scratching his head.

Barry shook his head. “First Ronnie, now Jay…..”

“Yeah. I'm afraid what this double dose of grief is gonna do to her. I mean, she's pretty shell-shocked” Cisco says, and Barry just sighs.

"Soooo you wanna talk about the elephant in the room" Cisco asks, putting down his glasses.

Barry knew exactly what he was talking about, and honestly he didn't want to have this talk. "What do you mean?" Barry asks shifting uncomfortably.

"You basically confessed you love me" Cisco says.

"I do love you....you’re my best...." Barry tries but Cisco wasn't going for the run around, not this time. 

He quickly shook his head and moved closer to Barry. "If I'm your best friend then don't lie to me, I want to know the truth".

Barry just stared him in the face, he leaned on the nearest wall and leaned back his head back, taking in a deep breath. “Ok, yes I love you. I am in love with you”.

Cisco just nodded. “Hmmmmmmmm, how long have to felt this way?”

"If I'm going to be honest, ever since poker face" the memory of those words replayed in his mind, and whenever he thinks about it he is afraid this will play out just like the alternate timeline did. 

 

_"How long have you liked me?" he finally asked not looking at Barry._

_"At first I didn't know but know I guess I can say it was ever since poker face" Barry says shrugging._

_Cisco instantly looks Barry in the face confused. "Poker face?"_

_Barry chuckled nervously. "It’s the song you were singing the day I came out of my coma. It’s the first time I heard your voice"._

 

"Poker face?" Cisco asks, crossing his arms. 

Barry smiles. "It’s...it’s the song you were singing when I came out of the coma". 

Cisco is completely speechless, that was almost two years ago. "I didn't know at first that I was, I just thought I was building a friendship with you……a connection. But then I realized that I felt something with you that I hadn’t ever felt with Eddie. Now that I look back at it, I realized that I was in love with you, but my mind was so clouded by my love for Eddie, it was hard for me to understand what it really was, by the time that I did. You were already in love with Ronnie".

"I still don't understand why you never told me" he asks.

Barry shrugged. "I don't know I just felt you'd be safer if I never said anything. You'd be happier not being pulled into my darkness".

Cisco shakes his head, and drops his hands to his side. "It my choice whether I want to do that Barry, not yours. You don't get a say so on who I get to love".

"Cisco reverse flash tried to kill you because of me, Zoom almost killed you because of me. What if something happens to you......I couldn't honestly bare it" Barry says in defeat. "I mean honestly we have been down this road before and all I did was hurt you. I lost you and I was so afraid it losing you again".

Cisco tilts his head in confusion. "Losing me? You haven't......”

Barry eyes where now filled with tears. "I did....I didn’t tell you before...in that alternate timeline. I told you how I felt, and we made love" he sobbed. 

Cisco's eyes widened in shock. "We did, and it was the happiest moment of my life. But when I went to tell Eddie I couldn't, because regardless of my feelings he was still my best friend and I knew I would lose him. So I didn't and I told you I couldn't be with you, and it completely destroyed you".

Barry straightened up his face and wiped his tears. "If I didn't run back in time and change the timeline and Eobard didn't kill you. You would have been pregnant. So when I got the chance to run back, I decided it was best to leave things the way they were. Eddie found out and that's the real reason he broke up with me, because he knew how much I loved you".

Cisco blinked back a few tears before covering his mouth with his hand. "Why didn't you tell me?" He asks.

"Because I didn't want to lose you, and I knew I would" Barry says.

Cisco moved closer, and takes Barry's hand. "Barry....." before they can continue Wells makes his way in. 

Both Barry and Cisco instantly pull away from each other, wiping their faces quickly before Wells could see. “How’s snow?” he asks, Harry obviously knew that the two where having a moment, but he felt it was best not to ask.

Cisco blinks a few times before looking in Caitlin’s direction. “Uhhhhh, not good” he answers.

“She'll be fine. Snow's strong. She'll get past this. But in the meantime, I would not say anything to her about her counterpart from my Earth. That goes for Joe and Iris too”.

Cisco and Barry looked at each other before looking at Wells. “Why?” Barry asked.

“Because you don't want to influence their reality in ways that should not be influenced”.  
“Like in the same way as when Barry time-travels?” Cisco says.

“Exactly, but also, what's the point? Those people are not your people. Their lives are not your lives. Never were, never will be. Bury it. Move on………. Yes?”

Cisco sighs but responds. “Yeah. That I can do”.

“Allen?”

 

_So that's what we did. We didn't talk about Earth-2. We kept what happened there between the three of us and got on with our lives knowing there was nothing we could do now to stop Zoom. Instead, we tried to just adjust to our new circumstances and cope with our losses. Jay's death took its toll... left scars on all of us, some more than others. And so to try and keep my mind off thoughts of the surreal other life I experienced that wasn't my own, I kept running, waiting for some other meta-human threat to rear its ugly head and distract me from the frustration I was feeling, and as fate would have it, I did not have to wait long._

 

“I said I'm fine” Barry heard as he walked Caitlin out the Cortex, Cisco’s eye’s following her as she went.

Cisco shook his head but never looked in Barry’s direction. “Hey. Did you hear that?”

“No, what?” Barry asks.

“Caitlin just bit my head off. She's been all business, no emotion lately. She's been... cold” Barry frowned at that.

“Cold? Come on, Cisco” he says rolling his eyes.

“This could be the beginning of her becoming evil. You're not worried about that?” he asked voice full of concern and fear.

Barry sighs heavily and drops his head back before looking back at Cisco. “I'm not worried about that. Caitlin's not gonna become Killer Frost. Hm. You haven't mentioned anything about Earth-2, have you?”

Cisco shifted back as if somewhat offended. “No, cause I know how to keep a secret”.

“All right, well, look, I mean, it's gonna take some time for her to heal. We just got to be there for her, keep her busy” Barry shrugs.

Cisco nodded, and began playing with his hand, and quickly peeked up at Barry who was biting his lip and unsure of what to really say. "Barry, we really need to talk about how we left things" Cisco starts, breaking the silence.

Barry sighs. "I thought we said we wouldn't even mention earth-2".

"And I haven't but your feelings are Earth 1 problems" Cisco stats in a matter of face tone.

Barry sighs and for a minute doesn't say anything. "Ok……..What do you think about what I said before"?

Cisco shrugs. "You mean about that alternate timeline?" He asks.  

Barry just nods. "Honestly I don't know, I feel like that was a lot to process" Cisco says.

"I completely understand if you’re mad, you have every right to be" Barry lowers his head.

Cisco crosses his arms. "Why would I be mad?”

Barry lets out a nervous laugh. "Ugh....because I've been sitting on this for a year and didn't say anything to you about it. And honestly don't know if I ever would".

"I think if anything it hurts more that you felt like you couldn't talk to me about it. I mean I'll admit it's a little awkward that you've seen me naked....and we...." he starts to shifts nervously, motioning between the two.

Barry laughs. "Have had sex, I mean technically we haven't" he finishes.

Cisco shakes his head, but laughs with Barry nonetheless. "It's still weird....”

Barry keeps his smile. "Not to me, it was probably one of the best nights of my life".

Cisco’s smile fades and his head drops. "Ok...." Cisco walks to the other side of the desk where Barry is standing. "So what about what I want?”

This makes Barry nervous, but curious. "And what does Cisco want?" he smirks.

"Well" Cisco grabs Barry's arms. "I want you" he wraps them around his waist and slides his hands up Barry’s chest until they wrap around his neck. 

"I get your scared, but Barry as long as I'm here with team flash I'm always going to be a target we all are. I love the flash don’t get me wrong, but I'm in love with Barry Allen" Barry doesn't think with his next move and he honestly doesn't need too. He tightens his hold around Cisco waist and pulls him in for a kiss. Cisco doesn’t even hesitate to kiss back, he has wanted this for so long, literally ever since Barry had been brought into star labs. Before the kiss could progress the couple heard a throat clear, they quickly detached from each other and looked to see Diggle and Lyla standing there, Lyla with a serious face, Diggle with a smirk. Soon as Diggle made eye contact with Barry he winked, making Barry blush.

“Oh. Hey, Dig, Lyla” Cisco says clearing his throat.

“What are you guys doing here?” Barry asked.

“We came to give you the head's up, Barry” Diggle says, smirk still plastered across his face.

Barry furrowed his brow. “About what?” he asked curious.

“A meta-human who escaped from A.R.G.U.S. custody, goes by the name King Shark”.

  
Joe, Iris and Wally where currently trying to fix the damage king shark created when he decided to put a nice new sunroof on Joe’s brand new roof.

“I don't suppose my homeowner's insurance covers a "Sharknado" attack” Joe sighs trying to assess the damage.

Wally stopped what’s he is doing to stare wide eyed at how nonchalant the two where about this. “I don't understand you people. Jaws busts through your house like the Kool-Aid Man, The Flash shows up, and y'all just act like it's no big deal” he states, is this normal in this town or something?.

“Yeah, well, we've had a lot of weird things happen in Central City over the past two years” Iris says.

“Weirder than a talking shark wearing pants?” Wally asks.

“Man, you'd be surprised”.

Barry runs downstairs and checks over everyone in the room, then looks at the roof to see how badly the hole was. “Hey. Hey, you guys. Everybody okay?”

Iris shrugs. “Yeah, yeah, we're fine”.

_And where the hell was he?_ “What'd you go hide under your bed?” Wally asks somewhat frustrated.

“Wally, come on” Joe starts.

“You know, Joe and Iris told me a lot about you, made it out like you could walk on water, or something, but they never mentioned anything about you being a coward” Wally says.

Joe quickly cuts him off at that. “Okay, enough!” Joe yells.

Wally shakes his head and grabs for his jacket. “See you guys later” he says before storming out.

“Dad, you need to talk to him” Iris sighs.

Barry shakes his head. “No. Its fine, I get it. Look, I know you guys love me, but please stop telling Wally all this great stuff about me. Start telling him the truth. I'm not perfect. I make mistakes that even The Flash can't fix” Barry lowers his head.

“Okay” Joe was officially fed up. “What happened with you on Earth-2? The truth”.

“I shouldn't... tell you guys this, but... I met your doppelgangers. You were the cop in the family, a good one too” Barry looked at Iris.

Iris laughs and points to Joe. “I told you I would've made a good cop”.

Joe points back. “Don't get any ideas. What about me then?” he asks curiously.

“You were a lounge singer. Yeah, you had this amazing voice, actually, but you didn't like me at all. You actually blamed me for Iris becoming a cop, said that she only became one because I pressured her into it” he says.

Iris tilts her head. “We were still best friends?” she smiles softly.

Barry nods. “Yea, we were still closer than ever, actually Cisco and I were married. We had a son and a daughter on the way…and Joe took Cisco in when he was a kid apparently. So Cisco thought of Joe as a father” Barry smiles up at Joe.

“Wait. You and Cisco were married?” Iris asks. She sighed heavily. _How many signs does this man need?_

“Mm-hmm. And we went to go see Joe perform. And that's when everything went wrong. Um, some metas that worked for Zoom showed up, they were looking for me. They knew I wasn't supposed to be there, and they attacked, and you got caught in the crossfire, and... you died. I knew that it wasn't you, that none of that was this life, but... I mean, watching it happen in front of me, living that, it didn't feel any different, because it was all still real. And Jay warned me not to get emotionally sucked in when I went there, and then that's exactly what happened. And now Joe West on Earth-2 is dead, because I showed up” Barry sobbed, wiping away as many as his tears as possible.

Joe stared wide eyed at him. “Barry, that... that's not your fault”.

“Yeah, it is my fault. It's all my fault. Zoom, this King Shark, Jay's death, it's all because of me. And then I just left an entire world at Zoom's mercy” Barry shook his head, and Joe stepped forward to comfort his son, but stopped when he heard his phone vibrate.

“Its CCPD” he looked down at Barry, who nodded in understanding. “I gotta take this”

Joe walked into the kitchen and Iris moved to sit down next to Barry. She rubbed Barry’s back and decided to let him get himself together before saying anything. When he finally felt somewhat calm again, he looked over at her. “Thanks Iris”.

She gives a lopsided smile. “For what?”

“For always believing in me, for always being there for me” he says.

“What are sisters for” she says leaning in and giving him a hug. “I love you”.

“Love you too” he says.

She sighs. “Sooooooo, what was your son like?” she asks, eyes wandering everywhere but at Barry.

Barry rolls his eyes and laughs. “It honestly didn’t feel real, and technically he wasn’t my son but he was the splitting image of me and my dad. He was the most adorable kid ever”.  
“With big ears I’m assuming” she burst into a fit of laughter.

Barry bumps her with his shoulders, then rubs his ears. “My ears are not big” he says still rubbing.

“Of course not” she teases, grabbing one.

“But seriously you and cisco where married” she smirks.

Iris can see the blush spreading across Barry’s face. “Yea” he smiled, thinking about the memory.

“We lived here, my mom was alive. For a moment I got to see what a normal life would be like”.

“Soooooooo, an alternate timeline, the future, and a different earth you guys find each other. Barry?!” shakes her head.

“I know! Iris I know” Barry stands and starts pacing. “I always have those memories of reverse flash and Zoom trying to kill him, and I always have the memories of what I did to him in that alternate timeline in my head”.

“Barry stop! Cisco knows the risk, it’s his choice if he wants to take them” she says.

For a moment Barry doesn’t say anything just stares into space, Iris can’t really get a good read on him, but that’s nothing new to her Barry’s always been a hard person to read.

His frown slowly turns into a smile. “Thanks Iris, I think I know what to do”.

“Ok, my work as an annoying sister is done” she stands, and brushes off her pants.

“You know we need to find you somebody, so you can have your own life and butt out of mine” he smirks.

She smacks the back of his head. “Ooooowwwww”.

“That’s for being a smart ass” and with that she leaves.

“Hail, hail, the gang's all here. What's good?” Cisco says as he walks into the cortex, not exactly making eye contact with Barry. They haven’t had a chance to talk since their kiss and it had made things between them a little awkward.

“Uh... I need to apologize to you all. Um... Last year I made a choice to go back in time and save my mother, and that choice had a lot of consequences that will haunt me for the rest of my life, just like I know it haunts all of you too. Zoom, Jay's death... It's all because of me, but I own those choices. We're the ones who opened the door to Earth-2. We're the ones who brought Zoom here, but we are also the ones who are gonna stop him” Barry says.  
Harry narrows his eyes. “How? How are we gonna stop Zoom, Allen?”

“I don't know yet. But those breaches aren't closed forever, and we're not done with Earth-2. Jay's death was not in vain. We will meet Zoom again, and the next time, I will beat him, whoever that monster is”.

The group all exchange glances. “And we will be right here Bar” Joe says, walking over to Barry giving him a pat on the back.

Barry smiles and nods at the support of his friends. The group starts making their way out, but Barry grabs Cisco hand before he makes it out of the cortex and pulls him back in. 

"Wait Cisco, I really wanted to talk to you about.....our kiss" Barry starts, hand still holding onto Cisco's. 

Cisco looked down at their joined hands and swallowed the growing lump in his throat. "Ummm....ok.....I'm mean what about it?" He asked stuttering over his words. Barry is probably the most guarded stubborn person he has ever meant, he knows this is the part where he tells him that's this is all a practical joke. Caitlin and Iris are going to come running out with cameras, and a film crew.......

"I been thinking a lot about us.... and Earth 2 and the future. I just........actually can we go on the roof. I just really need some air before I say this" Barry asks, a smile is plastered across his face but for some reason it makes Cisco super nervous. 

_Oh gosh he is taking me to the roof to kill me....._  

"Ummmmmmm....sure" he says, and Barry pulls him by his hand out of the cortex. 

They stayed locked like that the whole walk and Cisco couldn't hide the blush that was spreading every time he looked down at their hands. Once they made it to the roof Barry held the door as he let Cisco lead the way. Cisco walked through the door and it was possibly the most breathtaking thing he ever saw. There were candles lit over the whole roof top and a trail of twizzlers leading to the center of the roof. Caitlin, Iris, Joe and even Harry where standing not too far away from his faces full of excitement and joy. But as always he was completely lost. 

He followed the trail of candy anyway, just mostly because there was no other place to walk without knocking the candles over and setting star labs on fire. "Ummmmm guys, what is going on here?" He asks. 

"I asked them to come, I didn't want them to miss this" he smiles, and they stop right in the center of the roof.

"Is this the part where you kill me?" He laughs nervously. 

Barry laughs and shakes his head. "No....I uhhhhhhhhh this is my favorite place. It’s were you took me when I first learned about my powers and felt like I was alone. I told you about my father, my mother, and how I wanted to be a hero. I think I knew you for a day but I still felt like I could open up to you about just anything. It took me months to open up to Joe, Iris, even Eddie about my mom and dad but you.....I don't know something in me felt connected enough to you to let you know everything I was feeling".

Cisco smiled. "I have that effect on people" this made the group laugh. 

"I've spent the last two years trying to figure out how to be the flash, that I've forgot how to be Barry Allen. And today you reminded me that my life isn't just about being the flash, but it's also about being Barry Allen. I've loved you for a long time, these people standing her today can attest to that" he says looking at the group.

Cisco heart started racing, this wasn't what he was thinking it was? Was it. "Ok this is cute and everything but I'm really starting to freak out. What's going on?" He says blinking back the tears that were threatening to spill. 

Barry pulls a small box out of his pocket and just holds it in one of his hands, he takes Cisco's hand in the other. “I want a relationship with you, a life with you. I want this forever, I know this is forever....Soooooo".

Barry gets down on one knee and opens the box. "Cisco Ramon, will you Barry me?”

Cisco is completely shaking at this point. He is completely speechless, what was he supposed to say. Barry didn't tell him for a year that he was in love with him and when he does he gives him the run around about his feelings, and now he wants to get married. 

Barry smiles at Cisco's expression, because he knows exactly what he is thinking. "We don't have to get married tomorrow, next year or the year after. We can test out a relationship and see how it works for as long as we need to but I'm confident that one day you will be my husband".

Cisco just stared at the ring, he still couldn't form any words. He wanted so bad to give an answer and nothing would come out. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again. "Ok......" he says barely a whisper.

Barry smiles nervously not really hearing what he said. "What was that?"

"Yes, Barry Allen I'll marry you" he smiles. 

Barry quickly stands up and pulls Cisco in his arms for a kiss. Neither can register the sounds coming from Joe, Caitlin, Harry or Iris. Barry pulls back and wipes the tears with his palm before slipping the ring on Cisco's finger, and pulls him back in for a kiss. 

Cisco pulls back from the kiss, Barry's arm still around his waist and looks at the ring. "Is this your moms ring?" He asks. 

Barry nods and Cisco looks back at the ring. "Holy crap, I'm a fiancé" he says face completely red at this point. 

Iris could take it anymore she took this chance to run over to the pair and wrap her arms around them both. "I'm so happy for you guys!" She says. 

"Yea me too it only took, 8 months, plus I heard you've been drooling over him a year before that so......" Harry says very nonchalant.

Caitlin slaps his shoulder. "Harry!" she says.

"What? You were all thinking it" he shrugs. 

Caitlin thinks for a second before nodding in agreement pulling Cisco in for a hug. "Congratulations Cisco, I'm so happy for you" she smiles.

“I am too Allen” Harry pats Barry on the back.

"You always make me proud Barry" Joe says pulling Barry in for a hug, holding him tight.

"You deserve happiness Barry" he whispers, and slowly pulls back. "Treat him good".

Barry just gives a slight nod, and turns to Cisco who can't keep his eyes off his hand. "So we are really doing this?" He asks.

"Yes, we will build up to a wedding but this is what I want. What I've always wanted" Barry says.

Cisco leans up, kissing Barry slowly. "I love you" he says.

"Love you too".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Barry and Cisco try to figure out this new relationship  
> Zoom is back.........


	8. Versus zoom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry and Cisco try to figure out this new relationship  
> Zoom is back.........

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay. I'm going to try my hardest to get you guys two chapters this week. Since I didn't get a chance to last week. Enjoy:)
> 
> Comments and Kudos help speed the process along ;)

Barry quickly speeded into the cortex nearly blowing everything that lived on a table, rack, or shelf to the ground. “What... how long was I gone?”

Cisco clapped his hands together in excitement. “Let's put it this way, you just annihilated your old record” he says moving around the desk, pulling Barry in for a hug.

“Yeah, you went four times faster than you have ever been” Caitlin smiles proudly.

“Barry pulls back from Cisco looking down at him. “Four times? That's as... Fast as Zoom” Cisco nods quickly.

“Well, faster actually” Harry says making his entrance, coffee in hand.

“Hey, uh, do we think that, um, we can get this thing smaller? It kind of sucks” Barry says taking the device off his chest, handing it to Harry.

Harry takes it. “If it sucks, then, yeah” he gives a very small smile.

“All right, so now all we have to do is figure out how to get back to Zoom” Barry shrugs, as if it’s nothing.

“Yes, uh, just a minor issue. We closed all the breaches and have no idea how to reopen them” Cisco throws out.

“We don't... Um, Wells?” Barry tries.

Harry rolls his eyes and turns back to Barry. “Yeah, I have an idea, Allen. Let's keep the breaches closed forever. Forget about the breaches. Forget about Zoom”.

Barry is a little taken back by Harry’s tone. “Wait, I'm sorry, I thought that you were on board with this”.

“No. No. I said I would help you get faster. I did not say I would help you give the man who kidnapped my daughter and tortured her a chance to do it again” he says, voice full of frustration.

“Hey! We are not gonna let that happen “Iris says.

“Oh, you're not gonna let that happen. Gosh, I wish I'd known that the first time. You don't understand Zoom is different than us. Zoom is not tied to anything. Zoom does not care for anyone. I do. My daughter's out here on this Earth somewhere. I have to find her. We all have people that we care about. Zoom will use that against us. Believe me. Maybe we should just leave it be” Harry states.

Barry shakes his head, he wouldn’t accept that answer, and he wouldn’t let Zoom get away with what he had done. “No, no. Look, no. Look, we're... We're not turning our backs on another Earth. We're not gonna let Zoom get away with everything that he's done”.

“Right now, there is no way to another Earth, Allen. Let's keep it that way” Harry storms out.

“We're getting back to Earth-2. With or without his help” Barry states.

Cisco and Caitlin exchange glances. “Ok. Let’s get to work” Cisco says making his way to his office, not noticing that Barry was close behind.

Before Cisco can make it into his workshop, Barry grabs him and runs into the time vault. "Barry! You scared the crap out of me" Cisco says fixing his hair. 

Barry laughs. "Sorry, I just wanted to be alone with you for a second".

Barry moves to kiss Cisco, but Cisco quickly backs away, Barry slowly following his every move. "Oh no you don't! We have work to do Barry, we shouldn't be fooling around in here anyway".

"Why not? We have sex in here every day" Barry says using his speed to grab Cisco. "There's is nothing wrong with a quickie at work, it’s kinda fun".

Cisco smiles. "What if somebody catches us?" He moans out when Barry moves to kiss his neck.

Barry pulls back. "Have we gotten caught yet?" He asks moving in to kiss Cisco, moving his hands further down to grab his ass. Cisco feels a gust of wind barely even feeling Barry move, when he looked he and Barry where completely naked. "You know, one day I'm going to take off my own clothes" he smiles. 

Barry doesn't say anything just lifts Cisco up and slams him against the wall. Cisco wraps his legs around Barry's waist, and grips his shoulders. Barry is not surprised when he slides into Cisco with ease, they had been having sex twice a day sometimes 3 times a day since they got together. Much needed release they both needed apparently. 

Cisco throws his head back and moaned loudly, Barry quickly covered his mouth and smiled. "Sssshhhhh, you want them to hear us" he says. 

"I'm sorry, but I really need you to move" Cisco begs. 

Barry smiles and starts a rhythm that brings them both to the release in a matter of minutes. 

Cisco and unlocked his legs and before he can even attempt to put his clothes back on Barry had it taken care of. Cisco just adjusts his clothes and fixes his hair. "I think we have literally had sex in about every corner of this room" Cisco smirks.

Barry pauses to think before responding..."Hmmmmmm maybe later, we can try your workroom" he smiles grabbing Cisco chin and pulling him in for a kiss. 

"Oh no! My workroom is off limits" he says.

"You didn't seem to mind in that other timeline “Barry teases.

 "So we had sex in my workroom?" Cisco asks. He and Barry hadn't really talked about this much, Cisco didn't really have the motivation to ask about it. He was just focused on the here and now. 

 Barry nodded. "Yea, right on your desk" he says. 

 Cisco just shakes his head. "We need to seriously get back to work" he says to Barry grabbing head hand and pulling him out of the time vault. Thankfully no one was outside the door that would have been awkward to explain. 

"I need to actually meet up with Joe and Wally for dinner. Then I'll meet you back here in a hour" he leans down to kiss Cisco before taking off. 

"Love you too" Cisco whispers to himself, walking into his workroom.

Cisco heard a knock coming from his workroom door, he knew exactly who it was but he couldn’t find it in him to turn around and acknowledge that it was Barry. He knew Barry was probably disappointed that he left so suddenly but he didn’t understand.

“Hey, Baby” Barry says slowly making his way into the room, taking seat across from Cisco. “Look, um... I know what it's like... Zoom, getting in your head, how scary that can be”.

“It's not Zoom. It's me” Barry hears Cisco say.

Barry furrows his brow and frowns. “What do you mean it's you?”

Cisco spins around in his chair. “It's like right now I'm Anakin Skywalker. I got the midi-chlorians. I've got the goods. The force is strong with me. That is something I can feel. But if I start opening breaches into other worlds, doing all this other crazy stuff,  then... what if this is how I become Vader?” he asks.

Barry can hear the sadness in his fiancé’s voice and it breaks his heart, he scoots his chair forward, and grabs Cisco’s hands. “Babe, you're never going to become Vader”.

“You don't know that” Cisco says. “All I can think about is what Thawne said, how he gave me this gift. I don’t want to become him. He learned how to use his abilities, and when he felt that, when he felt that power, he succumbed... to the dark side”.

“Look, I get it. I... I really do. Every time I've learned a new ability, I've been terrified about what it might mean for me. What it could do to me, you know? But you were there with me when I learned how to run on water, when I ran up a building, or traveled through time” This make Cisco smile.

“Just like I'm gonna be there every step of the way with you. You got something that thawne never had, and that's Caitlin and Joe and Iris and Wells and me. Friends who are gonna look out for you. And we're more than just friends. We're your family”.

Cisco nodded and leaned forward giving Barry a hug. “Thanks Barry”.

Barry smiled, and pulled back. “Anything for you”.

Barry grabs Cisco’s glasses and hands them to him. “So what do you say? Ready to put those things on again, and go another round?”

“Let's do it”.

 

Jay or Hunter shall we say smirked at all the glares he was receiving from his once group of friends. Wells made his way into the room. “This thing is how I stole The Flash's speed the first time. Now all he needs to do is run, and his Speed Force will transfer into this vial. But only as long as I calibrate it”.

Jay tilted his head. “Get to work. Wells”.

Wells moved forward as if he wanted to do something to Jay. “Harry” Barry warned.

Wells glanced over his shoulder at Barry, who shook his head. “One day... I'm gonna knock that smug expression clean off your face.” He says, leaving to work on the device. Cisco walked over to Barry and gave his arm a small rub.

“You ok?” he asks.

Barry nods, but Cisco knows that he isn’t. “So this was your plan all along, huh?” Cisco asks.

“Ever since the skies parted and showed me another world... with another speedster. Once I saw you, I came here, figured out what I had to do” he answers.

“How are you still alive? We saw you die” Iris asks, voice full of hate.

Jay nodded very nonchalant. “You did”.

“So what was that? A speed mirage?” Cisco asks.

Jay chuckled at that. “Speed mirage? Uh, no. Even I'm not that fast. I knew that I couldn't be on two Earths at the same time, so I went back in time and, uh, met another version of myself. I also knew that the only way to make Barry become faster was if you all witnessed your old pal Jay die”.

This guy was unbelievable, Joe thought. “When did you decide to do that?” he asked.

“Oh, once you closed all the breaches, went to Earth-2. Believe me, getting my time remnant to agree to me murdering him took a bit of convincing. But once he saw the... well, the genius in my plan, he was all for it” Jay smiles, as if it was some heroic plan.

“Who's the man in the iron mask?” Barry has to know, no matter what he was still focused on saving him when it was all over, no matter if he lost his speed or not there would be an end to this. “You wouldn't believe me if I told you” Jay says showing that ugly smirk again.

“Why the charade? Running around dressed like The Flash?” Joe asks.

“To give people hope, Detective” Jay says as if it’s the most logical answer.

“Hope?” Joe questions.

“So I could rip it away from them. It's so fun pretending to be a hero” he smiles.

Caitlin can’t believe just how delusional Jay really was. “You are no hero. You're nothing but a monster”.

Jay’s smiles slowly turns into one of a frown, but he doesn’t take his eyes off Caitlin until, Wells makes his way back into the room. “It’s ready”.

Barry sighed, and everyone followed Wells to the treadmill. Barry walked last glaring at Jay as they walked, Cisco right next to him hand in hand. Cisco gave Barry’s hand a squeeze, and Barry relaxed his face looking at Cisco whose face was full of concern. “Barry” he heard.

Before Joe could say anything else. “It's all right, Joe”.

Barry close his eyes and took a deep breath, this could be his last time as a speedster and if he was being honest he was a little furious right now. It took everything in him not to attack Jay right now. He placed his foot on the treadmill, slowly placing the other. It took him a few minutes to really gather up the courage to start running. Once he didn’t he felt the speed force leaving his body with every step he took.

_He's slowing down_

_The Speed Force is leaving his body_

_He's becoming human again_

Barry quickly drop and fell off the treadmill when he felt it company gone. Cisco quickly ran into the room, leaning down. “Babe, are you okay?” he asks.

“I'm okay. I'm okay” Barry quickly nodded as he watched to Zoom absorb his speed. Jay’s scream was the last thing Barry heard before he was slammed against the nearest wall. All his oxygen cut off from Jay’s hand around his throat. “Ahh!”

“Thank you, Flash” he that ever so evil smirk spreading across his face once more.

Caitlin ran never to wear Jay and Barry where. “Jay, stop. Please. If anything you ever said to me was true, or anything we ever shared was real, then please just let him go. Please. I know some piece of you did care for me, so if you have any humanity left, then please, let him go” she pleaded.

Jay starred at her before dropping Barry to the ground, eyes never leaving her. Cisco and Iris made their way over to Barry. “Bar, you ok” Iris asked as Barry tried to catch his breath.

Zoom took that distraction to grab Caitlin and speed off. “Caitlin!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Barry learns what it means to be normal again.......


	9. Back to Normal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry learns what it means to be normal again.......

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, more of a filler chapter really :)

Barry was currently staring at the ceiling, arm behind his head, it had been a week and a half since he lost his powers and adjusting to life as a normal man was a lot harder than he imagined. His first day he overslept and ended up being 45 minutes late to work, he remembered that he actually lived 30 minutes from star labs. Waiting in line for coffee again was super annoying. But the worst was watching as crime piled up, he wasn't sure if people noticed that the flash was missing but they would notice eventually. 

"You think way too much" Cisco moaned stretching next to Barry, rolling to lay on his chest. 

Barry smiled, wrapping his arms around him. "A lot on my mind" he says. 

Cisco looked up at him. "Want to talk about it?" He asked.

Barry shook his head, and rolled on stop of Cisco. "No, no I don't. I just want to focus on my gorgeous fiancé right now" he leans down and kisses him. 

Cisco smirks kissing Barry back, but quickly pulls away and grabs his head. "Hey, baby you ok?”

Cisco doesn't say anything for a minute, he slowly opens his eyes and blinks at Barry. "I don't know what's going on with me, I've been feeling weird for the last few days" he says.

"What do you mean? What's going on" Barry asked, voice full of concern. 

Cisco just smiled as waved it off. "It's nothing" he says.  

Barry gave a soft smile. "Cisco, don't lie to me". 

Cisco sighs. "I've just been feeling a little light headed for the last few days. It's probably just stress with all that's going on" he shrugs.  

Barry just stared at him for a second. "Ok, as soon as we get Caitlin back I want her to check you out. Ok?" he says.  

Cisco leans up for a kiss. "I will. I promise" he says sitting up.

"I’m gonna make us some breakfast" he tried to fight off the sudden dizziness that hits him again. Not making it noticeable to Barry. 

"Breakfast would be great" Barry smiles. 

"Awesome! Get in the shower and I'll take care of that, and make a pot of fresh coffee so you don't have to wait in line at jitters" Cisco says, walking out of the room. 

"Thanks" Barry yells, smiling. The one thing he could say about his life that makes him smile is the sense of normalcy he and Cisco now had in their relationship. He had been staying at Cisco's almost every night sense this happened and falling asleep with him and waking up to him was the one thing that made him smile in all that has transpired over the last week. It's been 2 months since they started their relationship and to be honest this is the happiest Barry has ever been, Zoom aside.  

Soon as Barry was dressed he made his way into the kitchen, sitting down at the table. Grabbing a newspaper, before he could open it Cisco snatched it and ripped it up. 

"This is not your problem anymore, let the police handle it" he says grabbing his coffee and breakfast. 

Barry threw his hands up. "Uh you do realize I am the police right?”

"Correction. You’re a forensic scientist" Cisco corrected.

"OK well I work for the police so I'm going to find out what's going on out there anyway" Barry says. 

"I don't want to talk about the news, or what's happening in central city, or criminals at breakfast. I want to spend time with my fiancé. Is that too much to ask" he says, pouting his lip. 

Barry blushed. "Of course not" he smiles.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Barry spends time with his dad  
> Cisco's symptoms worsen  
> Harry pressures Barry about getting back his powers


	10. Rupture

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry spends time with his dad  
> Cisco's symptoms worsen  
> Harry pressures Barry about getting back his powers

Cisco moaned as he turned around in the bed feeling for Barry. He blinked a few times, trying to clear his vision his eyes where so blurry and his head felt weighed down as if he had been sleep all day. He slowly sat up and saw a note on Barry's pillow. 

_Hey Babe,_

_Went to spend some time with my dad, I should be back later today._

_Love ya,_

_Barry_

Cisco dropped the paper quickly and ran to the bathroom. He quickly put the toilet seat up and threw up everything he had eaten the night before. Cisco had been feeling dizzy the last few weeks, but the nausea started a few days ago. First it was every morning, he blamed it on Barry's cooking. But yesterday it happened most of the day, he wasn't always throwing up but the urge was always there. I mean the smell Harry's coffee nearly sent him to the bathroom. 

Cisco slowly stood up and looked at himself in the mirror. He looked like shit, he tried his hardest to hide this from Barry. The last thing Barry needed on top of all the stress he was feeling from losing his powers was worrying about Cisco being sick. 

He walked back to his bed, falling backwards. Ready to go back to sleep. He checked his phone and saw he had a few messages from Harry. But it was when he looked at the time he noticed that it was 12:30. He had been sleep for almost 11 hours.  

He scrambled to get into the shower and dressed. He was surprised his phone hadn't been lit up with calls. Once he was dressed he made his way over to star labs, Harry, Iris, and Jesse.  

"Ramon, finally where the hell have you been?" Harry asked.  

Cisco rolled his eyes. "Minding my business you should try it sometime" he answers. 

Harry shakes his head and leads him to Caitlin's lab, motioning for him to look at the computer.

“It looks like the Vacuum” Cisco says.

“Uh, what's the Vacuum?” Jesse asks.

“No "Fringe" on Earth-2” he says in Disbelief.

“Noted. What is that thing?” Iris asks.

“That is how Barry's gonna get his speed back” Harry answers.

Cisco and Iris both rolled their eyes. “This is what you've been working on in the workshop?” Cisco asks crossing his arms.

“Someone has to worry about Zoom” Harry states in a matter of fact tone.

“Okay. Barry cannot do this” Cisco was completely against the idea, they had no idea how this would play out, or if it would even play out the same way.  

“He has to, Ramon”.

“You keep calling me that, but that's...” Cisco stopped mid-sentence when he got a vibe of his brother Dante.  When he came to Iris, Jesse and Harry where all staring concerned, waiting to know what he saw.

“What did you see? Zoom? Did you see Zoom?” Harry says somewhat panicked.

Cisco slowly shook his head. “No. I saw my brother. I got to go” Cisco started making his way to the door when he was stopped by Barry and his father walking in.

“See where everybody is”.

“Hey. Henry?” Iris says making her way over to Henry pulling him in for a hug as soon as she was in his reach.

“Iris. Hi. It's so good to see you” he says.

“Aw, you too”.

Cisco walked over to Barry, he meant Henry several times but it was a little weird this time. Like meeting the soon to be father in law for the first time.

"Cisco" Henry says pulling him in for a hug. "I'm so happy for you guys"

"Thanks Henry" Cisco says. 

Henry makes his way to the rest of the gang. "Hey baby, I'm gonna head out for a few, I need to take care of a few things with my brother" he says. 

Barry grabs his hand. "Everything ok?" He asks concerned. 

"Yea...no everything is fine. I just need to talk to him is all".

Barry nodded. "Ok" he leans down and gives him a peck on the lips.

"Love you" Barry says. 

"Love you too" and with that Cisco heads out. 

“Hey. There she is” Dante says as Cisco walks into the bar. Cisco couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Same ole Dante, never changes.

“Still refuse to dress like a grown-up, I see. One grape soda”.

As soon as grape soda, left Dante’s lip, Cisco could feel his stomach turning. "I'm good thanks" Cisco raises his hand, and Dante quickly grabs his hand.

"Is that an engagement ring?!" He asked shocked. 

Cisco pulls his hand away. "Yes, it's an engagement ring".

Dante rolls his eyes and goes back to his drink. "So who was dumb enough to put a ring on your finger"?

Cisco was a tad taken back by that. But honestly nothing he shouldn't expect from his brother. "Wow....ok. His name is Barry, the guy l brought to your birthday party last year".

Dante was shocked. "He asked you to marry him?" Dante chuckled.

"I find that hard to believe" he says taking a sip of his beer. “So... what's wrong?”

Cisco just shrugs very nonchalant. “What? Something has to be wrong for me to want to catch up with my brother?”

“Yeah, that's usually the way it works with you, isn't it?” Dante threw out.  

Cisco sighed. “Actually, I had this... feeling that I should come see you and make sure you're okay, so... “

“Don't tell me I'm gonna be kidnapped by Snart and his pyromaniac friend again” Dante mocked.

“Us. You. Me. Us. They kidnapped both of us” Cisco pointed out.

“Yeah, well, you're not the one who almost had his hands frozen off. Lucky I can still play the piano. Well, my octaves haven't quite been the same, but not that that matters to you” Dante says.

“Dante, I called you, more than once, but, of course, you didn't answer” Cisco corrects.

“Like I said. Only when something's wrong” Dante counters.

Cisco shakes his head. “Yeah. Okay. I don't know why I thought that whole experience... that was it. That was gonna bring us closer” Cisco says, trying to hold back his tears. The last thing he wanted Dante to see what how much this affected him.

“Cisco, we haven't been close since we were kids. I don't think anything's ever gonna change that”.

Cisco just nods, turning his face to wipe away the tears. “All right, well, this was fun. Um...good hang” he stands up and closes his eyes trying to fight the wave of dizziness that hits him. This was starting to get out of hand.  

“Whoa. Wait. Gonna take care of that, right? Dude, you invited me” Dante says, pointing to the bill.

“Unbelievable” Cisco says, throwing money on the counter, not even bothering to say bye as he walked out the door.

“Cisco?” he heard as Dante followed behind him. “Hey, wait. Yo! I need a lift home”.

“You still don't have a car?” Cisco asked in disbelief.  

“Some of us don't have a fleet of company cars at our disposal. Dude, it's on the way” he pleads.

“Yeah, okay. Come on” Cisco sighs not looking for to the most likely tense ride. Neither notice the man walking up to them, what get their attention is the staff shooting in their direction hitting the car next to them throwing them both to the ground.

“You okay?” Cisco asked.

“Hello, Vibe” the man says.

“Simmer down, Reaper. We got no beef with you”.

“Maybe not, but I've got beef with you, Vibe” he says, and Cisco can practically hear him smirking under the mask.

“Why does he keep calling you that?” Dante asks.

“I don't know”.

“You killed my friend, so, now, you die” he says making his way towards the pair.

“Oh, my God. You're "Princess Bride"-ing me right now! You must have me mixed up with somebody else, Inigo” he tries, the man not backing off.

 “I don't think so” he points his staff towards then and Cisco quickly pulls Dante up.

“Move!”

“He calls himself Rupture. Another meta-human under Zoom's control from my Earth” Wells confirms.

“Great, so he's bringing more of his friends over” Cisco says pacing the room, he felt so stressed right now.

“That's what I told you he would do” Well says.

“Okay, well, Zoom must've lied to fake-Dante and told him I was the one who killed Deathstorm, 'cause dude wants me dead. We got to do something” Cisco says, Barry walks around the desk.

“Hey, he is not gonna touch you or Dante” he says giving his shoulder a small rub. “What else do you know about him?”

“He gets his power from that scythe he wields”.

Cisco nods. “Thing's legit too... it almost took half the van with him”.

“All right, then that's what we need to do” Barry says. “We need to figure out a way to get it away from him”.

“Right. Okay, all right. I'm sure I can come up with something. I just have to figure out a way to not tell Dante why this psychopath looks exactly like him” Cisco says making his way back to his workroom.

Wells tilts his head. “You know what you need to do”

Barry sighs. “I need a minute”.

“What is this?” Dante asks as Cisco makes his way around him. Cisco glances and back sees that Dante found the note he addressed to him and his mother.  

“You went to another Earth?” Dante asks somewhat confused.  

“You weren't supposed to read that” Cisco snatches it away and throws it in his backpack.

Dante throws his hands on his hips “It was on your desk, it was addressed to Mom and me so, yeah, I read it”.

Cisco rolled his eyes. “Look, I got to go, okay? We'll talk about this later” he moved to walk out the door but Dante instantly blocked his way.

“No, man, we're gonna talk about this right now!”

Cisco threw down his book bag. “Okay, let's talk about this now. What did you want me to say? "What up, fam? I know you probably don't care, but I'm going off to another Earth for a hot sec. If I don't make it back in time for dinner, it probably didn't go so well” he says trying his hardest not to cry, his damn emotions where all over the place.

“Why did you even go in the first place?” Dante asked. 

“Because my friends needed me to vibe” Cisco instantly closes his eyes, not meaning to let that slip. 

“Vibe? That's what that lunatic called you, who attacked us. What aren't you telling me, Cisco?” he asked, he was so fed up with Cisco and all the lies, how hard was it to tell him the truth. \ 

Cisco sighed and sat down slowly. “I have powers” he whispers. 

“Powers? What, you're, like, a meta-human?” he asks. 

Cisco nodded. “I was affected when the accelerator went off two years ago, and now I see things, vibes... of people. Like visions?” 

“So that's why you called me” Dante says.

“Yeah. I had one of you, or at least I thought it was you, until your "World of Warcraft" doppelganger showed up” Cisco says. 

Dante eyes widen at the fact Cisco might have killed someone. “You killed his brother?”   

Cisco instantly shook his head. “No, I didn't kill his brother. Of course not” 

“Why wouldn't you tell me any of this?” Dante asks.   

"I wanted too……..I thought maybe this time when I saw you things would be different between us. Maybe we could finally have that bond I've always wanted. I didn't really have anybody growing up, our parents always favored you, I was bullied in school, all I wanted was for my big brother to have my back just once in my life" Cisco says tears starting to spill. 

"Cisco, I do have your back" Dante tried.

Cisco faced twisted into one of confusion. "When?" He chuckled.

"When you stole my prom date? When you called me a dog? When you said I wasn't good enough to find someone to love me" Cisco sobbed.  

Cisco waited for Dante to say something but he just stared at Cisco, clearly trying to hold back his tears. "I'm sorry, brother" Dante whispers.

"I think I'm pregnant Dante" Cisco whispers. "I think I'm pregnant and I'm really scared".

"I wanted you for once in my life to be there for me and tell me everything is ok. But it's just like you said, we haven't be close in a long time and probably never will be".

"Cisco...." before Dante can get a word in he sees Barry standing at the door.

"Hey babe, you ready?" Barry asked, he could sense the tension in the room, but he felt it best to not speak on it.  

Cisco never took his eyes off Dante as he said. "Yea....yea let's go".

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The team try to figure out how to get Barry out of the speed force....


	11. Runaway Dinosaur

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team try to figure out how to get Barry out of the speed force....

Everyone stood shocked looking at where Barry once stood, in disbelief.

“This wasn't su... I didn't... I'm so sorry” Harry tried, he had no idea this would happen.

“We lost him” Henry whispers, trying to stay calm.

Cisco shook his head, and quickly made it way over to the computer. He refused to believe his fiancé was dead, there was no way. “No, no, no, no, he... He could've got knocked somewhere or maybe even run there. Nothing on the GPS” he says, but he refuse to give up. He wouldn’t give up.

“There were strikes all over the building. Jesse, come down here, please” Harry got nothing back so he tried again, maybe the signal was jammed from the lightning storm.

“Jesse? Wally?”

Joe and Harry quickly got Jesse to the lab, Henry tried to do as much as he could remember. It had been 20+ years since he had done this soon to say he was a little rusty was an understatement. But he had to get Harry to focus on getting Barry out of the speed force somehow.

“Thank God you're here. Caitlin's usually the one doing this, but...” Cisco says, but cuts himself off when a small wave of nausea creeps over him.

Henry stares at him for a second, ever since he had been back he had notice that Cisco had been sick. Mostly nauseous and dizzy spells is what he had seen.

Iris touches his shoulder. “Hey, you ok?”

Cisco nods. “Yea, just been sick the last few days. Barry made spaghetti and it’s still working its way out” he laughs off.

Henry choices to not address Cisco right then with Iris there. “Heart rate's normal. Reflexes and breathing are fine. She should be waking up. She's just not” Henry says.

“It was the same with Barry. Um, after the first accident, he was in a coma that no one could explain” Iris explains.

“What did you do with him?” Henry asks curious.

“So they brought him here... Well, Wells brought him here. The other Wells. Right, the Wells who was actually Thawne. Eobard, not Eddie. It's... it's complicated. Anyway, we took care of Barry while Wells... Thawne... treated him” Cisco rambles.

“Are there any records of that treatment? We might find clues how to help Jesse” he asks.

“Uh, yeah, they'd be downstairs in the storage room, in the morgue” cisco shrugs.

“Ew, you guys have a morgue?” Iris asked disgusted.

“Well, it's not like a morgue morgue. It's not... it's like a poor man's morgue, really. Morgue-ish” he explains trying not to make it sound as bad as it really did.

“Would one of you go get them, please?” he asks.

“Okay, well, I'm not going alone” Cisco says eyeing Iris, who rolls her eyes.

“Come on!” she gestures for him to follow her.

"Actually Iris can you give Cisco and I a minute before you head down?" Henry asks.  

Iris looks at Cisco then back to Henry. "Sure, come get me when you’re ready" she says leaving.  

Cisco looks at Henry who was wearing somewhat of a smirk on his face. "I'm glad Barry finally came to his senses about you. I watch him battles with his feelings for a long time" Henry says.

Wait Henry kept Cisco here to talk about he and Barry. "Thanks Henry". 

"I noticed all day that you've been feeling a little off" Henry starts.

Cisco waves it off. "Oh it's nothing. No need to worry".

Henry just smiles and him and doesn't say anything for a minute. "You know when Nora was pregnant with Barry......”

Cisco froze up the minute he heard that, he knew exactly where this was going. "She had morning sickness horribly. She didn’t ever wake up a morning without running to the bathroom. She knew she was carrying someone special she always said “Henry chuckled.

"She always thought very highly of Barry, she loved him the minute she found how she was pregnant. As did I" Henry saw Cisco trying to get control of his emotions, but he could see it in his face he was about to cry. 

"Cisco, Barry may be oblivious but I'm not. Are you pregnant?" Henry asks.

Cisco starts crying, and shakes his head. "I don't know. I haven't taken a test or anything, but the nausea, dizziness, sudden disgust for twizzlers and excessive sleeping says otherwise". 

Henry nods, running his hand down his face resting on his chin. "How long has this been going on?” 

"A few weeks. It started with headaches, then turned to dizzy spells, then came the nausea, then I noticed I was sleeping longer than usual. It's just not the right time" he sobs, Henry comes over giving him a hug. 

"Hey, it's ok Cisco. With you and Barry it's never going to be the right time. But you guys will figure it out" Henry says.

Cisco nods, and wipes his face. "I know, it's just it all feels rushed".

"What do you mean?" Henry asks.

Cisco shrugs. "I mean we just got engaged 3 months ago, and 3 months into the relationship I'm pregnant. We are still figuring out our relationship". 

"Yea, it is a little soon. But I have faith the two of you will figure it out" Henry says giving Cisco's shoulder a small squeeze. 

Cisco nodded and wiped his face before heading down to meet Iris. It’s not 30 minutes before Iris and Cisco and running back into the lab out of breathe and full of fear. This startles Henry, and Joe makes his way over to the pair. 

“What’s going on?” he asks. 

“We got a new problem. Our accelerator experiment seems to have reanimated one of the dead metas in our morgue” Cisco tries to explain while catching his breath. 

"Reanimated?” Henry asks. 

"Like brought back to life? Life-ish. You ever seen "The Walking Dead"? It's "The Walking Dead," but without higher brain function and with major rage issues. Still unsure if our brains are on the menu, though” Cisco says. 

“Which one?” Joe asks. 

“Tony Woodward” Iris says. 

Joe seems somewhat puzzled as if the name doesn’t ring a bell, then it hits him. “The bully from school who turned into the metal man? That's not good, Cisco” Cisco just shrugs.

“History repeats itself. First as tragedy and then as farce” Harry says, cleaning off his glasses, eyes never leaving his daughter.

Joe walks over to wells and Kneels down next to him. “Wells, as a parent, believe me, I have nothing but sympathy for what you're going through. Listen to me closely when I say to you, we got a lot of fires burning at the same time, and if we all work together, we just might be able to put them out. Let Henry take care of your daughter. Me and Iris will handle this Girder situation, but you and Cisco are the scientists. You're the only one who can bring Barry back from wherever the hell he is right now”.

Harry just stares at Joe for a moment processes everything he said, then back to his daughter as if he was confused as to what to do. Jesse needed him but he knew if he was going to bring her out of whatever she was in, he needed Barry’s help.

“Ramon... give those medical records to Henry, and meet me in the Breach Room in five minutes. We've got work to do” he says making his way past the crew.

Cisco nods and follows. “Now we just need to find Tony” Joe says.

“Yeah, hopefully before he kills someone. Come on”.

“So how do we know this is safe?” Cisco asks taking a look at Wells newest creation. 

Wells just shrugs. “Well, define "safe”. 

“Safe, as in my brain's not gonna melt” Cisco snaps. 

“No. It's a simple feedback loop, Ramon, all right? When you vibe on Barry, your brain waves send me the necessary data to pinpoint whatever dimensional pocket or corner of the universe that Barry is stuck in. And then we electrically stimulate your prefrontal cortex while opening a breach, which gives you physical access to Barry and lets you be the beacon to guide him home. Simple feedback loop” Harry explains. 

Cisco quickly panicked. “I'm sorry. Did you say electrically stimulate?” 

“Ramon, do you want to bring Barry back or not?” Well asks, knowing that Cisco wanted that more than anything.  

Wells starts the machine and Cisco is instantly pulled into his vibes, connecting with the machine. The energy from Barry suit drawing him to the speed force. “And we have a lock”. 

Cisco was completely confused as to where he was, if this was a speed force it was the creepiest thing he had ever seen. It looked as if he was in the center of a tornado. Cisco looked around to see if maybe he could spot Barry and long behold there he was. “Barry!” he tried yelling. He went to move closer to Barry but noticed that his feet for some reason would not move from the spot he was in 

“Take my hand! Do it. Take my hand” Cisco yells and Barry wanted to so bad, he wanted more than anything to be back home with him, with his family. But they didn’t go through all this for him to come back empty handed. He needed to stay. 

“I love you” Barry mouthed before running away. 

Wells hears Cisco moans starting to turn into screams, he didn’t know how much longer Cisco was going to be able to hold on. “What is going on in here?” Iris yelled running in, Henry not far behind her.

“Just hang on a little longer, Ramon... A little longer” Well mumbles under his breath. 

Iris pushes at his shoulder. “Hey, you're killing him!” she says. Wells disconnects the machine bringing Cisco back to reality. His knees instantly gave out, as he tried to catch his breath. Cisco felt a familiar feeling coming up his stomach and he didn’t get a chance to run or move anywhere as he leaned over the side of the machine and threw up.  “Cisco! Hey, Cisco, can you hear me? You ok?” Iris concerned rubbing his back.

Henry walked over to the other side of Cisco, rubbing his back. Cisco just nodded it was all he could say at the moment as he tried to catch his breath. “I saw him. Barry... he turned to me. I'm sorry. I lost him”.

                 

“All right, look, if it's me that he wants, I'll just lead him away” Iris says pacing, they were all out of options. Everyone was currently trapped, with no idea of how to get Barry out of the speed force or how to stop Toni. 

“No, you won't. You'll never even make it past that door. If he came back from the dead and still wants you, what makes you think he's gonna let you go now?” Joe says, that idea was thrown far out the window as far as he was concerned. 

Cisco thought back to when he saw Barry in the pipeline. “Wait. I saw Barry. He had this look. What if we couldn't get him out of the Speed Force because he didn't want to come back?” he asks.

“Turn it on. We got to try again” Cisco says, the gang all had looks of concern. “Any of you got a better idea?” 

Henry was very against this idea, he did not want Cisco to head into the speed force again. The last time it nearly killed him and could have harmed his baby. If there was a baby, they weren’t sure yet. But something in Henry knew Cisco was carrying his grandchild. “When you look into the Speed Force, can someone else see into it too?” 

“Well, as long as you're in physical contact with Ramon while he's vibing, then... yes. But Henry….” Wells started.   

“Let me do that. I can get Barry to come back” Henry tried. 

“Henry, no disrespect but I think it should be Cisco, he can most likely bring Barry back to us” Iris states. 

Cisco glances over at Henry, who is staring at him with a worried expression. Henry nods and walks over to Cisco whispering. “Be careful Cisco” he says. 

Cisco nods, and motions for Harry to turn on the machine. Cisco is instantly locked in and back in the speed force. He looks around and again sees Barry. “He calls for him and this time Barry turns around almost instantly as if he knew he was coming. “Barry!” he yelled. 

“Take my hand” Cisco reached his hand to Barry and Barry smiled looking at it. “Barry, come home to me” 

Barry looked Cisco his eyes for a moment before giving a slight nod, reaching. So as their hands connected, Barry could feel himself separating from the speed force, he felt a slight burst of energy and he was no longer holding Cisco hand. He was now staring at his peers, who smiled and yelled in excitement.

 Barry feels a pressure on his chest and is being pulled down slightly. Cisco smell was the first indicator that he had pulled Barry into a hug. Barry smiled and wrapped his arms around Cisco slowly. He took in his smell, the feel of his body, the sound of his laugh. He locked his arms and smiled into his shoulder.

“I thought I lost you Barry” he says, pulling back slightly. 

“You will never lose me Mr. Ramon. The sound of your voice will always bring me home.” Barry whispers into his hear. The sound of Cisco laugh makes Barry feel safe for some reason, makes Barry feel at home. 

“While you two are having a moment I’ll just be here in reality with the rest of the team trying to figure out how not to die!” Harry says. 

“Wait. What?” Barry asks.  

“Right So... Girder. Girder came back to life, and he's all Young Frankenstein now, and he only recognizes Iris, and she lured him to my workshop so we could demagnetize him, but the machine shorted out, so he's about to come through that door and smush us all into chunky salsa and possibly eat our brains out. I don't know. Jury's still out on that” Cisco rambled on.

Barry waved his hands in the air trying to calm everyone down. “All right, I got it. I-I will lure him to your workshop, and we figure out a way to turn the power back on, okay?”

Cisco and Harry in unison reply.  “Plan H!”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Barry is not himself since he has been back from the speed force....  
> Cisco finally learns whether or not he is pregnant...


	12. Invincible

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry is not himself since he has been back from the speed force....  
> Cisco finally learns whether or not he is pregnant...

Cisco walks into star labs, Henry called him about an hour ago asking to meet him at the lab, and of course he had to come this was his father in law after all. Even though his body was completely against the idea, he showered, threw on some clothes and came in. Once he walked into the cortex he saw Henry sitting in Caitlin's lab.  

"Morning Henry" he says. Henry smiles and walks over to give him a hug. 

"How you doing this morning kid" he asks. 

Cisco shrugged. "Ok, apart from the nausea. I don't know it's really bad this morning" he says rubbing his stomach. 

Henry just nods as if he is jotting down notes in his head. "Ok, you need to get some prenatal vitamins as soon as possible. We want a healthy baby. And I need you to make sure you stay hydrated as well as.......”

This was super overwhelming to Cisco. "Ok, wait. I haven't even taken a pregnancy test" Cisco says tears forming in his eyes. 

"Ok, ok. Don't worry that's why I called you hear don't cry" Henry says rubbing his shoulders, he could tell Cisco was about to turn the water works on at any moment. 

"I'm sorry, I can't control it" he sobs.  

Henry chuckles. “I know, I know" he grabs Cisco's hand and leads him to the bed. Cisco slowly gets on it and Henry motions for him to lie back.  

"I found an ultrasound machine here which isn't surprising considering they have everything a doctor dreams about" he laughs. "Lie back, and raise your shirt. Let's see if there is a baby in there". 

Cisco nodded and leaned back. "This is gonna be a tad cold" Henry says squirting a small amount of gel on Cisco's stomach.  

Cisco doesn't know why but he suddenly feels like he can't breathe. This is kinda surreal if he was gonna be honest. He was so scared right now. He was pulled out of his thoughts when he felt Henry pushing something against his stomach. He felt Henry moving it around a few times trying to adjust. Cisco couldn't even find it in him to look at the monitor. He felt him suddenly stop, and for a few seconds he didn't feel any movement. It's what he heard next that made him look at the monitor. 

_THUMP, THUMP, THUMP_

Cisco stared wide eyed at the screen. He just stared for a moment at what he saw on the screen, that was his baby, holy crap that was his first born son and he was listening to the sound of his son’s heartbeat. Cisco couldn't help it this time, tears spilled from his eyes. He looks threw glassy eyes at Henry who was also tearing up, hand covering his mouth in awe.  

"That's my grandchild" he whispers.

"Son" Cisco says, and Henry quickly looks at him.  

"Huh?” 

"In the future and on the earth-2 Barry and I had a son named Jacob" Cisco says.  

Henry looks back at the screen. "He looks healthy, heart beat is strong. Your almost 7 weeks along looks like" he wipes the gel of Cisco's stomach and pulls him to sit up.  

"How do you feel?" Henry asks.  

Cisco starts crying again. "I don't know honestly. I'm really scared right now".

"It is scary, I know I was terrified at the fact in 9 months I was gonna be a father. But as the months past and the more I bonded with Barry while she was pregnant. More I couldn't wait to hold my son. Once you tell Barry Cisco, trust me it will make this better". 

Cisco nods, and wipes his eyes. "Thanks Henry, I really appreciate everything". 

"You are family now Cisco. I'd do anything for you. I’ll get your vitamins and such. When are you going to tell Barry?" Henry says pulling him on for a hug. 

“I don’t know. I’ll figure it out”. 

Cisco smiled and look to the computer monitor when it alerted him that someone was walking into the building. He looked at the Cameras and was shocked at who he saw walking through the doors.  

"Caitlin?" He whispered.  

It wasn't long before Barry and the rest of the gang where called in, by the time they all arrived Henry had given Caitlin a full checkup, and a change of clothes.  

Barry didn’t even see Caitlin, he was more so worried about Cisco. He hadn’t been home when he woken up and all night Cisco had been tossing and turning.

"Hey baby, where were you this morning?" Barry asks.

"Ugh your dad and I grabbed some breakfast" Cisco says looking at Henry for confirmation. 

"Ugh yea, I wanted to bond some with my future son in law" he smiled, patting Cisco's back.

Barry narrowed his eyes and looking between the two. "Ok" he says. 

He turns and that's when he sees Caitlin, who has already engaged with the rest of the group while Barry was talking to Cisco and Henry.  

"Caitlin?" He says running over to her, pulling her in a tight hug. 

“She's in shock. A little... dehydrated and malnourished, but I think she'll be fine” Henry says to Barry.

“'m okay” she says.

“What happened? How did you get away?” Barry asked kneeling in front of Caitlin.

“He... let me go. I didn't think he would; I thought it was a trap. But... he told me you were dead” Caitlin says with a shakey voice.

Barry shakes his head. “I'm not. I'm right here. We're all here, together”.

Caitlin shook her head, and looked Barry in his eyes. “He's gonna overrun the city. You can't stop him”.

“Yes, we can. Listen to me, he's not going to succeed. We've got this. This is our Earth. I know from being in the Speed Force that the universe is with us, not Zoom. And if the universe is with us, how could we possibly lose?” Barry says and turns back to the rest of the group. “Right, guys?”

“Yeah, yeah, right” Everyone said threw wide eyes.

Barry smiles. “You've been through a lot. You should get some rest, come on”

Caitlin stands and follows Barry out of the cortex. “You were in the Speed Force? I... when you were gone?” she asks.

“It's hard to explain, but we tried to get my powers back and when the dark matter lightning...” Barry and Caitlin walk out of the room.

Cisco can’t help but be the first one to speak up, Barry had been like this ever since he came out of the speed force and he was starting to worry and scare everyone.  “Okay, I'm gonna say it. Um, we don't think he's being just a little too... Overconfident?”

Yeah, maybe it was his time in the Speed Force. I mean, he's acting like he's invincible now or something” Henry says.

“Yeah, like nothing fazes him anymore, which isn't...” Iris starts.

“Realistic, no. Somebody needs to talk to him before letting his guard down gets him hurt or worse” Joe states.

Jesse shrugs it off. “He did bring me out of my coma. That's bound to make someone a little overly chipper” she says.

Cisco looks back in the direction Barry just left. “Well, like I said, somebody needs to talk to him”.

Everyone looked in Cisco’s direction, Cisco looked back and forth between everybody before throwing up his hands. “Look I know he is my fiancé and all but why do I have to be the one to talk to him? I’m sure he would love some words of wisdom from his dad” Cisco motions between Henry and Joe.

Joe chuckles. “Our jobs as parents are over, as his soon to be husband. You inherit that roll” Joe says placing his hand on Cisco’s shoulder.

“Good luck” he says before walking out.

Cisco sighs and goes in search of Barry, when he finds him he is in the lab with Caitlin whom from the looks of it must have been exhausted because she is sound asleep.

“Hey. She's out like a light, huh?” Cisco whispers trying not to disturb her sleep, he knew she had to be exhausted. Sleep probably wasn’t an option for her during her captivity with Jay.

“Yeah. Jay really did a number on her” Barry says.

“It's not like he exactly used kid gloves on the rest of us” Cisco states.

“She'll be okay. She just needs time. And for us to finally bring Zoom down. Which we will” Barry says very confident.

“Yeah, because the universe is with us, right?” Cisco says as if mocking. “Listen, babe...”

Cisco doesn’t get to finish that statement when he is pulled into a vibe. Soon as he is fully aware, he looks around to see if he can get a better understanding of why he is vibing this. He hears something similar to the chirping of a bird, he looks down and sees a dead bird right at his feet. Before he can even process what that means he is being pulled out of his vibe, and Barry is now standing in front of him.

“Cisco?” he says trying to get his attention. “Hey. You okay? You just vibe?”

“Yeah?”

“What'd you see?” he asks.

“I saw a bird. Like, a dead bird” Barry expression changes somewhat similar to the one Cisco was wearing.

_BEEP BEEP BEEP_

The alarms sound before the pair can even begin to figure out what the vibe means.

“Mercury Labs. It's under attack” Cisco says.

“All right” and with that Barry speeds off.

              

Caitlin and Cisco were currently in the lab working on something that would help them with Zoom. So far nothing was panning out, and nothing was coming together and this frustrated Cisco.

He was completely over all this all he wanted was a nap. He threw the marker he was currently holding in his hands.

“I thought throwing things was Harry's preferred method of dealing with stress” Caitlin says smirking back at Cisco.

“That is how frustrated I am right now. I'm... just running out of ideas as to how to make this work. Where's Barry? I need a taste of that "Walking on Sunshine" thing he's got going on right now” Cisco says leaning over trying not the knock over the board too.

“No... No!” he hears and he sees Caitlin backing away from the mirror, face in complete horror.

“Hey. Hey, hey, hey, hey. It's me, okay? Breathe. Breathe. You're okay, all right? You're shaking” Cisco rub her arms to see if he can try to calm her down.

“I... I thought I saw him... Zoom... I thought I saw him right there” she stutters out.

“It's just me, okay? Look at me, he's not here. He's not here” Cisco assured.

“I see him everywhere” she sobs.

“Look, you literally just escaped a psychopath who kidnapped you, all right, so I think it's normal for you to have a severe reaction like this” Cisco says.  

“This is so much worse than that. I... I'm afraid all the time. I don't think I can ever move forward” she says completely broken.

“You will”.

“When? Jay took everything from me. My confidence, my trust, my sanity. I don't think I'll ever be whole again” she whispers.

“Of course you will. He didn’t take your family, we will all be here to see you through this Caitlin and you WILL make it through this I promise” he smiles and her.

She gives a small smile back, wiping the few tears that have fallen. “Thanks Cisco” she says.

Cisco sighs debating if he wanted to tell her the news, she was his best friend after all and he needed to tell somebody.  He decided that with Barry being all one with the universe and with all the Zoom stuff he wanted to surprise him somehow when this was all over.

“Besides I need you to be alert and strong for when you nephew comes” Cisco speeds out nervously.

Caitlin tilts her head and rolls her eyes. “Cisco I’m sure I’ll be alert and ready for babysitting duty by the time he comes. I have a few years” she chuckles.

Cisco shakes his head. “Noooooo…..no you don’t. You have 7 months” he says, eyes filling up with water. Gosh he hated being pregnant…

Caitlin’s eyes narrow, then quickly widen. “Cisco are you……?”

Cisco just shakes his head, and starts sobbing like a baby. Caitlin can’t help but giggle and pull him into a hug. “It’s ok” she says rubbing his back.

“I’m sorry, it won’t stop. Everything makes me want to cry anymore, Barry drank the last bit of cola this morning and I cried about it for 25 freaking minutes” he says wiping his eyes.

Caitlin looked at Cisco’s belly, then back up to him. “Anybody know?”

“Just henry, he did an ultrasound this morning that’s how I found out. But my symptoms have been a dead giveaway too” he states.

Caitlin gives his stomach a small rub. “How do you feel? Did Henry tell you want you need?”

“I feel like crap, I think I have every pregnancy symptom imaginable, and yes he is going to get me some vitamins” Cisco says.

Caitlin just nods. “Could be the baby’s meta DNA making you feel that way. If he has it, but my guess is your mostly experiencing more severe symptoms because of it” Caitlin explains.

“I can probably put something together to help with that” she says smiling at him.

“Thanks Caitlin” Cisco says pulling her in for what had to be their fourth hug. “I love you and I know you are going to get through this”.

  

“What in the world? What is this?” Barry said as he and his father made it into Joe’s house.

“Blame Iris” Cisco says as Joe poured him a glass of wine. Henry walked over to Cisco and took the glass from Cisco.

“No wine” he whispers, throwing the wine into the nearest plant.

Cisco rolls his eyes and sighs. “I read up that you can have one a day” he whines.

Henry frowns, which makes his sigh even harder. “Fine, I’ll get some juice instead” he says slumping his shoulders and making his way to the kitchen.

“Okay. I just figured that since Henry is officially back for good, we should celebrate. And since Zoom is gone and the city is quiet right now” Iris explained.

“Oh, I appreciate it, Iris. Thank you. Hi, Tina. Hello, Jesse” Henry says taking a glass of champagne from Joe.

Barry walks out in the kitchen and finds Cisco’s standing at the counter pouring a glass of apple juice into his wine glass. Carefully his snuck up behind him, wrapping his arms around his waist burying his face into his neck. “What are you doing?” he asks.

“I am pouring apple juice into a wine glass” he says very nonchalant.

Barry chuckled. “I can see that, why are you drinking apple juice?” Barry asked.

Cisco sighed, and tried to figure out something to say to Barry. This was it, this was the perfect time to tell him about the baby. The perfect moment everything felt….” Soup's on” Cisco heard, and suddenly his stomach started growling uncontrollably. _Ok ok, after dinner_

“Oh thank god!” Cisco says trying to turn around, Barry grip on him didn’t let up.

Cisco smiled up at Barry. “Ummmmm….baby can you let me go? I’m starving” he whined.

“Once you explain the apple juice, what’s going on?” Barry asks.

“Since Caitlin wasn’t around I asked your dad to do a checkup on me, and he said I had a mild stomach bug and to keep away from alcohol and coffee for a few weeks” he says hoping Barry accepts that answer.

Barry stared at him for a few minutes before leaning down to kiss him. “Ok, thank goodness it wasn’t anything major” he smiles.

“I’m ok” Cisco says leaning up for another kiss.

_Hey you guys better not be fooling around in my kitchen!_

They both pulled away when they heard Joe yell. Barry threw his head back and pull away from Cisco. Both laughing. “WE ARE NOT FOOLING AROUND!” Barry yelled.

“Let’s go” Cisco says grabbing Barry’s hand.

“Ok I’m starving! Taking out a city full of monsters makes a man hungry” Cisco claps his hands together and looks down at the spread of food, it was probably the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

“First, a toast. To family” Joe says raising his glass.

“To family” Everyone repeated, lifting their glasses.

“That's my kind of toast, short and sweet. Let's eat” he says making his way to the food, his senses have practically enhanced since he has been pregnant he could smell the food from around the street.

Cisco instantly stops his movement when he is pulled into yet another freaky vibe, with the same dead birds he had been seeing all day. “Oh. You guys. Great” but this time is different. He turns around at the sound of screams and sees a people running towards him.

“Earth-2” he whispers as he watches it explode.

“Cisco?” he hears. “What... What is it? What'd you see?”

Cisco blinks a few times, not even realizing he had been pulled out of the vibe. “What do you mean "see"?” Wall asks.

“Cisco gets visions” Caitlin says.

Cisco was super confused. “I don't understand”.

“What Cisco?” Barry asks.

“Earth-2 splitting in half. Straight down to the poles. Tell me I didn't just vibe the future. Please tell me I did not just see the end of the world!” Cisco panics.

Suddenly a bold of blue lightning flashes through the room and when the group looks to see where it landed they see Zoom holding onto Henry. “Our story continues, Flash”.

Barry can’t move, he is completely frozen in place. This can’t be happening….it all seems too familiar. Before he can think about what to do next Zoom takes off with his father Barry not far behind. When he stops he is once again in his childhood home, and Barry know exactly what is coming.

“Dad? Dad?” he says spotting Zoom standing in the very same spot his mom was murdered.  

“It's poetic, returning to your childhood home” he mocks.

“Jay. Don't do this. I'm begging you. I'm begging you! Take me. Kill me!” Barry pleads, he would do anything to save his father’s life, he couldn’t lose him too.

Jay peeked around Henry. “No! You still won't believe me that you and I are the same” he spat.

“Come on. Barry, look at me, son” Henry says trying to get Barry to focus on him.

“So I'm gonna have to make you believe me” Jay says completely ignoring the fact that Henry was trying to get in his last words.

“Whatever happens you have made me the happiest father...” he sobs.

“Dad...” Barry inches closer.

“This time, you're gonna watch your parent die just like I did” Jay yells.

Barry shakes his head. “No, no!” he begs Jay.  

“And this is what's gonna make you just like me!”

“Your mother and I love...” and with that Jay shoves his hand through Henry’s heart.

“No!”

 


	13. The race of his life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last Chapter......

Barry was currently sitting on the front porch of his stepdads house. His whole team had finally taken down Zoom, this was supposed to be a victory...a win. But it felt like one of the biggest loses of his life. He let Harrison Wells in, trusted him called him a friend and he killed his mother, he let Jay in and he killed his father. This was a nightmare. He heard the door open but he couldn't turn around to see who it was and honestly he didn't need to turn around to see who it was. 

"Hey" he heard, he looked over as Cisco took a sit next to Barry. 

Cisco and Barry hadn't really had much interaction since his father died. Cisco tried his hardest to be there for Barry but he seemed to always want to push him always no matter how hard he tried. He wanted so badly to tell Barry about the baby but now just wasn't the right time. Cisco wasn't sure how Barry would take the news at a time like this honestly.  

"You ok" Cisco asked. 

Barry just stared at Cisco, he knew he had been neglecting him but he just couldn't find it in him to talk to anyone right now. First Thawne with his mom, then Zoom with his dad. He was losing the people he loved one by one and he couldn't lose him too. 

Cisco nodded and looked down. "I understand if you don't want to talk about it" he says.  

"I do, I do. I just can't right now" he says.  

Cisco nods.  “Can't stop thinking about my dad's doppelganger. Seeing him, knowing that he's out there, that should've made it easier. It doesn't. It just made me miss him even more” Barry says threw a shaky voice. 

“I can't even imagine how hard that must have been” Cisco says. 

“We just won. We just beat Zoom. Why does it feel like I just lost?” Barry asks.   

Cisco grabbed Barry’s hand. “Because you've lost a lot in your life, Barry, more than most”. 

Barry looked down at Cisco’s hand and took a hold of it, rubbing his engagement ring with his thumb. “I feel so hollowed out inside right now. I feel more broken than I've ever felt in my life. If I'm ever gonna be worth anything to you, I need to fix what's wrong with me. I need to find some... Some peace” Barry explains. 

“Barry, listen to me.  Wherever you need to go, whatever you need to do, do it. And when you get back, I'll be here. Okay. I love you, Barry Allen” Cisco smiles and it’s those words and that smile that bring a smile to Barry’s face, something he hasn’t done in days. 

Barry takes Cisco’s hand and pulls it to his face, rubbing it against his face as if taking in his scent. “I love you too. And I always will”

Cisco smiled again, leaning forward giving Barry a small peck on the lips. He gives hand a squeeze before walking to the house. “I'm so sorry. But I have to do this” Barry says running as fast as he can.

He closes his eyes and imagines the one thing he wants more than anything, the one thing that would make all his pain go away. A time in his life when he has it all, his parents, his friends and family, and the love of his life. He comes to a stop suddenly and he is standing there again, watching the colors of lightening as they fight against each other. There sit his mother, crying on the ground as she watches the scene before her. Barry runs in the direction of reverse flash before he can get a chance to get to his mom. He looks Eobard once again his face. 

“You're not gonna kill her this time. You're not gonna kill her ever again.” He spat, throwing a strong right hook knocking him out 

Barry let his body dropped and turned around looking at his mom. She was completely panicked from what she witnessed so it made it hard to trust that he was there to help her. “No. I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm not gonna hurt you. Okay? I'm not gonna hurt you. You're safe. You're safe now”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lookout for part 6 of my series Flashpoint Paradox


End file.
